#because deleting a post only removes the source and stops you from getting notifs

[toskarin]

because some of you are very annoying god bless

[rpbetter]

Reblog Etiquette (and ships)

At this point, we all know about “reblog karma” and “reblogging from source.” Though, I say that...and am questioning it. You should fucking know this by now, but in the event you don’t, let me define that shit for you.

Reblog Karma: the RPC’s oldest attempt at keeping people from clogging notifications and using others as meme resources. Essentially, don’t reblog a meme from a mutual unless you are sending them something from that meme first. Not all blogs practice it, or practice it the same way, please see their rules.

Reblogging from Source: another effort to stop being used as a meme/aesthetics resource. Many RPers would like you to reblog quotes, aesthetics, and memes from their source (original post location or the meme/aesthetics/quotes resource blog they got it from), even if you are sending them a meme. This is especially applicable when not interacting with the RPer.

Okay, that’s out of the way.

There is more to Reblog Etiquette than this!

And, when that etiquette is nonexistent, it almost always deals with a RPer’s ship. Mentioning ship partners and/or tagging ships on a reblog from another RPer, not removing that RPer’s mentions or tags, and even dropping a mention or outright RPing in the comments of another RPer’s reblog.

Don’t reblog from another mun and tag your ship or mention (@) your ship partner(s).

Don’t reblog a post with someone else’s mention still stuck to it.

Don’t reblog a post and leave the previous mun’s tags still in the tags.

Don’t go into the comments on someone’s post and mention your ship partner(s).

Don’t roleplay in the comments of someone else’s post.

None of this is alright, I have no idea what would make anyone think this is appropriate reblog etiquette, but it very much is not. It’s incredibly rude and lazy. Because I know that many people have similar ship aesthetics and so on, I’m not saying you shouldn’t reblog something for your own ships that a mutual has for theirs. (That’s a whole other in depth conversation we’ll have later.)

I’m saying that this is how you should be going about it:

Reblog from the source.

-What if there is no source because it’s deactivated, or there is another reason why I can’t access it? 

Go into the post’s notes. At some point, damn near every post that could be used as an aesthetic, quote, or prompt for a ship (and RP in general) has been reblogged by at least one source blog. Look for RP meme, aesthetic, help, and other resource blog urls. If you cannot find one of those, look for urls that are general resource-style blogs. Personal blogs reblog aesthetics etc. as well, and there are many such resource blogs out there. -If you’re uncomfortable reblogging from a personal, that’s tough shit; I hate to break it to you, but most of your resources came from personal blogs. Deal with it, or don’t reblog anything you can’t find filtered through a RP specific resource.

-- “But this takes time/effort lol I just want to use it for my ship.” Again, tough shit. Sometimes, it does take energy not to be rude and do the right the thing. In all honesty, it’s fairly rare that doing the right thing is effortless, even when it’s something as simple as RP. Grow up.

--- You went through the notes, but there’s no appropriate blog to reblog from, now what?

Just because it’s a rare occurrence doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I know this one isn’t, I’ve had it happen too! My choice was to not reblog it at all, I just sent the link to my ship partner privately instead. If you don’t have that kind of friendship, you really wanted it on the dash, or another reason, you are now left with one option, and you’re not going to like it. Message the mutual you want to reblog from. Politely, explain that you’d like to reblog the post for your ship, and ask if they’re comfortable with it. No guilting, begging, or general, weird ass rudeness. If they decline, accept it just as politely, thank them for their response. If they accept, thank them, and especially if this isn’t a mutual you interact with much, be sure you’re showing them continued support on the dash by reading and liking/commenting on their headcanon posts and other appropriate material. (You should be anyway.)

Remove any mentions present (@’s)

Seriously, this is incredibly rude! Yet, with the typical lack of self-reflection and awareness of others in the RPC here, I see it multiple times a day on my dash. Not just with RP-blog-to-RP-blog interaction either, I also see RPers reblogging from personals and leaving their mentions attached. (I see it the other way around too, but I’m not here to school personal blogs.) For all the excessive emphasis RPers put on appearance, you’d think they’d want to get rid of something that looks this sloppy, but no. Not if it takes one extra second of effort!

-I know that xkit’s editable reblogs tends to break whenever tumblr gives us a new, exciting, hideous, insulting, limitation, I mean update, but come the fuck on. It is also one of the quickest things to regain functionality, so, maybe you should save the reblog to drafts, be following xkit’s blog for updates, and edit it once there has been a patch. If it’s worth it to you, it’s worth a short wait. When it’s working, you can easily remove that mention with editable reblogs.

--If you’re going to use being mobile as an excuse, or if you don’t want to wait on it/don’t use xkit, again, go to the source. And, also again, if that isn’t an option, you can find where it has been reblogged by an appropriate blog at some point in its history, sans mentions. Reblog from there.

Do not reblog someone else’s tags (#)

Some people have their xkit set up to reblog automatically with the previous poster’s tags. While that can be useful in some situations, I can think of, very literally, no situation this is appropriate for an RPer to use. If you have this set up on your personal/resource blog/wtfe and your RP blog is a sideblog (or you are using certain methods of having your browser open to two separate blog accounts where your xkit settings are transferring over), it’s up to you to delete the tags on these posts.

-It takes maybe one full second to click in the tag field and hit your delete button a few times to clear it. Do that. It’s never, ever, appropriate to keep someone’s ship, muse, verse, or other personalized tags attached to a reblog.

--If you are a personal blog reading this somehow, maybe you’re wanting to get into RP, please take note of this. This is one of the many reasons why most RPers will not interact with personals. We don’t like you reblogging an aesthetic post and keeping our tags on it.

In the case of both situations, not only is it rude and lazy, it’s fucking with someone else’s tags and privacy. Most RPers don’t want their content showing up in generally searchable tags, it’s one of the reasons that personalizing tags came about. Furthermore, if I’m on my dash and click a mutual’s custom tag for aesthetics, verses, ships, and so on, it’s now going to come up with instances of those tags on someone else’s blog as well.

Delete the fucking tags if they auto-populate. Don’t use someone else’s custom tags of your own volition either.

“Subverting” reblogs to mention in comments is a hard no, too

-So, you don’t want to reblog the post, but do want to @ your ship partner(s) in it? There’s no way to do that without being rude and strange. To be honest, this is even worse than just reblogging and tagging your ship.

I may not be the OP, but you came onto a post on my blog, one very likely tagged for my ships and/or having my ship partners mentioned on it, and commented on it mentioning your ship partner. It’s every bit as offensive and more so than someone reblogging from me and using it for a ship I’m not a part of. I don’t know what’s worse, when that other mun is a ship partner, casual mutual who doesn’t interact, or a writing partner but not ship partner. It’s all deeply fucked up. No one’s RP blog is here for your use like this!

--You’re also not subverting anything. I think the idea is to be polite or go unnoticed. People seem to lack a basic grasp on how tumblr works; you get notifications on reblogged posts you are not the OP of when someone comments on them just like you get a notif when someone likes it. The only way to genuinely be secretive about this would be to comment on it from the source or a resource blog. They will get the notification.

If you are commenting on, liking, or reblogging a post you see on the dash, the person having reblogged it, putting it there for you to encounter, will be notified of your interaction with it.

---What I’m saying, just in case it isn’t abundantly clear, for the third time now: you’re not being slick. Your mutuals will see that you weirdly @’ed someone in a comment on their reblog. They know.

----The appropriate behavior is to do just as advised in the above points: GO TO THE SOURCE. If no source exists, find an appropriate resource blog in the notes. You may then, and only then, give that mention in a comment.

Frankly, it’s still weird, and I would recommend you just reblog it from the source to interact with it. There is always the option of sending it to the intended party by way of tumblr’s messenger or linking the post in an off tumblr messenger like discord.

I say this because it hasn’t escaped my attention that the only time I have this issue on my own RP blog is when the imagery or text is fucking filthy. As in, Other Mun didn’t want something that sexual, kinky, violent, and so on to be posted to their own blog. You need to grow up if that’s your deal. Like writing smut or violence, if you need to do it in private only, you’re obviously not adult enough to handle the topic.

Keep your roleplay where it belongs; in your inbox and threads

-It’s not appropriate to start up RP in the comments of another RPer’s reblogged ship aesthetic. (Or anything else, this just happens to be the most common.) It’s incredibly odd and offensive to look in your notifications and see that a mutual and their ship partner are flirting, or outright fucking, in the comments of a post you reblogged for your ship.

It’s just as awkward feeling and offensive when someone reblogs the post and begins full-blown RP on it. It’s one thing when it’s a post originating from an RP resource blog, or when it’s kept to something like a mention and a short line that your writing partner can start their original post in inspiration of. But...

--You know how I said above that auto-copying tags thing is one of the reasons why RPers are iffy about personal blogs? Well, this is one of the reasons why personal blogs think RPers are exceedingly weird members of fandom that need to be excluded and devalued. It’s odd, especially if you’ve never encountered RP, to see someone reblogging your quote, moodboard, or other original post and RPing on it.

Listen, we all need to RP some crack and commentary sometimes, but it’s best left in the tags or put into a new post.

---Instead of RPing (not sorry, especially if it is smut) on that post, link the image to show in a new post, and go from there.

Please remember to be polite about artists, including photographers and gifers, when you do this! Tumblr automatically gives the source of imagery when you use a link to display the picture, that’s why I recommended doing that instead of saving, then re-uploading the image as though it is your own. If you’re going to do that, even if it’s just silliness going on, give mention of the artist, photographer’s blog/site, or gifer’s blog in the tag or below the image.

Tumblr is deeply unfriendly to artists of all sorts, don’t be fuel that. When you upload artwork for the sake of RP, again, even if it’s just crack, that’s literally violating what artists ask people not to do; you’re reposting their art without permission and credit.

[eye-raq]

Ember.

Chapter One.

This is an old series that I haven’t touched in forever, probably almost a year now. Since my Wattpad got deleted, the chapters that I had linked there from Tumblr was also deleted. I’m glad that I uploaded to a03 with some chapters so am gonna post the chapters here for those who want to read it again or for first time readers. Enjoy!

Hi. It’s me, Ember. Glad you could join me tonight.

She moaned softly, audio on his Mac Book giving her voice the perfect mixture of allure and innocence. The only light that ignited the space between him was the computer and the little desk lamp that occupied his workspace. The clock read approximately 10:00 PM---right on cue like it had been for the past month now. He sat relaxed on his black leather swivel desk chair, legs spread and dark green sweatpants hanging low on his hips. His dark brown eyes covered in his gold-rimmed specs scanned the computer screen, watching her shadow dance across her walls lit by candlelight. Her bedroom was her main source, and the camera aimed straight ahead overlooking a bed that was covered in gold silk, steps on either side leading up to the mattress like royalty, and a large headboard behind it littered with many candles. He waited with little patience, fingertips grazing the keyboard. His chest heaved when he saw her cocoa colored legs come into view, draped in a black silk robe. She giggled, most likely from the many viewers that were tuning in to watch her put in work. Erik scanned her background, eyes falling on the different movie posters that covered her walls and used easels that were lined up against the lower walls. He guessed briefly that she must be an artist, deciding to store that thought in his long-term memory. Miss Ember focused the camera towards the bed more, before laying her curvy body in the middle of the mattress, black silk robe halfway open and nipples hard pressing against the fabric.

she giggled lightly, “I see we have some eager viewers tonight.” She rubbed her pillowy thighs together slow, red painted toenails curling among each other.

“So, what do you wanna see tonight you greedy men.” 

Her lips were painted in glitter tonight and her curly hair lay messily over her shoulders. Erik rubbed at his lower abs slow, mind wondering how her eyes looked since she decided to keep them out of view. Her nose had a small hoop ring in it, and her ears were covered in them too. She had the most beautifully crafted natural body he had ever seen, her curves whining and grinding in the camera purposely. She picked up her favorite purple rhinestone wand, rubbing her hands over it slow, “You wanna see me warm up a bit Daddy?” 

She spread her legs, slipping the wand along her slit slow, teasing him. She didn’t give too much away which had Erik damn near screaming in his chest. Come on, baby, stop teasing daddy, He whispered low, legs swinging because of his growing erection.

“Daddy needs to be patient” She whispered as if she were talking directly to him.

She shuffled on her mattress, picking up her phone, sliding through. In the background, a sensual instrumental played out and her teeth grazed her bottom lips lightly. She took no time to remove her robe, her black lace lingerie set coming into view. Damn, Erik spoke low, digging his thumb into the waistband of his sweats. She hummed in a melodic tone, and it sounded almost princess-like as she lay on her belly, her ass facing the camera wiggling it slowly.

“Daddy, make sure you keep your eyes on this thick ass, okay?” She arched her back into the view of the camera, the material sinking in between her cheeks. “Does my daddy like what he sees?” She took her red painted nails, running it along her pussy from behind.

Daddy likes alright. Erik lifted his hips from the chair, lowering his sweats and briefs taking no time to pull out his throbbing dick, gripping it firmly. He stroked it slowly, feeling his limbs twitch after every stroke.The chimes from the many notifications she was receiving rang out multiple times. She twerked her ass in the camera, turning her head a little towards the screen her eyes still shielded. She had a cute gold chain around her neck that hung loosely in between her lips, her tongue grazing it seductively. She paused, thumbing her panties to the side causing one of her shiny lips to peak out like a blooming flower pedal. Erik groaned deep, gripping his full bottom lip with his teeth hard.

“Oh Daddy..” 

she lowered the rest of her panties slow, finally letting the fabric rest at the crease behind her knees. That pussy. Erik was always at a loss when he saw it. How she managed to swallow the thick toys she possessed was astounding. It was of a reddish pink color, her lips like milk chocolate that hugged her clit so perfectly. Her inner lips rested against her insides like two half’s of a rose and the shine of it reflected off of her camera. Erik’s mouth watered, and he tried to slow his motions around his dick but it was really fucking hard when Ember looked the way she did.

“Daddy I’m so fucking wet already and I didn’t even do nothing yet.” 

She reached up to stroke her lips, drawing her fingers back with separation, the slimy wetness sticking to them like glue. She brought her fingers to her glittery lips, sucking each finger so rough you could hear the suction through the speakers. So fucking nasty. How does that pussy taste huh baby? Erik ran his free hand along his solid chest, eyes never blinking, focusing on her motion without so much as a flicker. She sat up on her knees, her plump ass twerking slow, face shielded by her wild mane, her hands digging into the silk. She turned towards the camera slow, her lips and round button nose in view, tongue scraping across her glitter lips.

“So fucking good daddy, I wish you were here…why’d you leave me huh?” She reached under her, fingers grazing her clit causing her to hiss low, “why’d you leave me behind to take care of myself?”

Daddy wishes he was there lovely…I sware I do.

Erik jerked his stiff dick quick, causing his limbs to rise and shake, before slowing down again running his thumb over his swollen head, pre-cum gliding over the pad of his thumb. 

Fuckkkk girl.. 

Erik lifted his glasses up the bridge of his nose, head leaning to the side in awe, eyes trying to read her from a different angle. She laid her body down slow, turning so that her pussy was in view. Her head tilted to the side on her mattress, full face finally coming into view of the camera causing chimes to ring out, which caused Erik to even hit the like button a couple of times in succession. She had a lace masquerade mask on, with cat ears, and Erik squinted his eyes to try and catch the full frame of her, but she timidly tilted her chin into the crook of her neck, making it a little harder to see. Her fingers were deep in her pussy now, damn near digging over her g spot. The noise of her motions filled the room so loud it made Erik pause his strokes just to admire her. He leaned into the computer, eyes glued to her fingers digging into her sweet cavern, legs spread wide and toes curled. If it was possible to get a taste from licking the screen he would, and his tongue was damn near soaked from the thought of it. “Oooo,” her innocent sounding voice moaned out as she thumbed her clit along with stroking her entrance, head turning from the camera lost in her motions.

“Daddy taste me..” she was whispering low now lost in her actions.

“Daddy punish me..” Erik’s hand was back to his dick now, no care at all that he stroked it quick.

“Daddy fuck me…please” She damn near begged as if he were in that room, and Erik couldn’t take it.

He wanted so bad to bury his dick all the way to her cervix. He just wanted to keep it there and fall asleep with it there, and whenever she moved, he would pump her fast and quick making her cum and cum until she couldn’t give him any more rain; until she was drained.

I love how you want daddy to punish you…

He was breathless now, air leaving his nose quick, his free hand gripping the edge of the desk tight. He jerked his hips to match her fingers pumping quick, her body leaning to one side, suspended in the air, fingers digging and her palm smacking against her pussy.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

Erik knew she was close. He could tell by the way her fingers shook, and the way her pretty chubby toes curled every which way in a frenzy. Her heavy chest heaved and she began to wheeze. Erik leaned back in the chair, jerking like crazy, his legs spread wide and his free hand gripping his shoulder for leverage. He lowered his head, eyes squeezed and his mouth agape in shock. He was about to have a big nut, and all of this was because of her.

“Ahh, Daddy. Daddy. Daddyyy!” 

She clenched her lingers, crying out. Her liquid poured from her, and like a greedy person, she was rubbing her clit still, causing small bursts to escape her. Erik soon after felt that familiar tug, leaning back in the chair wildly before releasing his seed all over his Lower belly. He shook as he was coming down from his high, lifting his hand to wipe it on his pubic hair. He leaned his head back, eyes falling on her as she placed her fingers in her mouth. She sucked them deep to the point where she was making herself gag, and clearly, the viewers couldn’t get enough of that.

That pussy is fire girl. 

Erik sat up in his chair, watching her lift to her knees, her heavy breasts damn near looking at him, her hands brushing her hair from her shoulders. She giggled, her smile wide with these cute little dimples on the sides of her mouth. 

“thank you, I do it for you Daddy,” she responded to her viewers the way she knew they liked but it only made Erik feel possessive.

She reached over to pick up her favorite dildo, the one Erik had to admit reminded him of his dick. Maybe it was from the fantasy of wanting to ram his dick in her that made him comparing his dick to the toy, but either way, he rather imagined it that way. He could feel his dick twitching against his thigh, clearly ready for round two and he patiently waited, taking his sticky fingers typing out a message for her to see.

TheGoldenJaguar: Daddy really enjoyed your little show but he’s not finished with you yet 😈

Erik sat back, tongue poking out to grazing the side of his lower lip. Ember gripped her dildo at its base, wrapping her fingers around the balls. She tongued the tip in slow circles, lace covered eyes wide and innocent in the camera. She wrapped her lips around the tip, moaning from the contact while her head bobbed in a circular motion. She popped her mouth off of the toy, spitting a generous amount on it to make it wet.

“When I say I love sucking your dick daddy,” she giggled, biting her lips before sinking further onto the thick toy, her jaws sinking and her eyes never leaving the screen.

Erik damn near lost it. She sucked it that well that it almost felt like she was taking his soul. It almost felt like she was aiming to suck him dry and leave him hungry and weak. He kept his eyes on her like he was staring down at her through his dreads, hands stroking her hair, gripping it tightly, instructing her to keep those pretty doe eyes on him. His thumb grazed his lower lip in concentration, eyes low and hungry.

“Clearly my mouth needs to be filled.” 

Ember lowered her mouth onto the dick, burying it to her throat. She kept it there, coughing a little as she sucked lower. Erik grunted, wrapping his arms around his head as he watched her suck that toy like it was running away from her. Spit seeped from her mouth and trailed down the middle of her chest, gagging on the toy with no complaint.

You better suck that fucking dick girl. 

Erik jerked his leg to calm himself from gripping his dick. He shook his head in awe as she twirled her tongue around the toy, finally releasing it from her mouth, a trail of spit leaving her plump mouth.

“Did daddy like that?”

Fuck Yes.

“Mmm, Daddy, my pussy is dripping from this dick.”

Ember laid back on the bed, gripping her wand in her hand letting the dildo sit against her wet pussy. She turned on the vibrator, increasing the speed of it. Erik’s hand wasn’t the slightest tired as he jerked again, eyebrows knitted together from just the sight of her alone. He had to have this girl. One way or another he had to have her. She spread her legs wide, leaning them back further with her arms, her head lifting to get a view of the camera. She flicked her tongue over her upper lip, her brown eyes zeroing in on him. He stared back, bringing his hand to cup his balls squeezing them lightly. She took her fingers and spread her lips, her swollen clit poking out like a present. Erik wanted to suck on it so fucking bad, he had to bite his palm to control his tongue. He imagined her writhing and pleading beneath him, his arms holding her in place as he sucked her clit repeatedly, letting her cum into his mouth. He knew her cum had to taste like sweet nectar, and the skin of her inner folds feel like satin against his tongue. Shit, I just want you to sit on my face baby girl..suffocate me.

She rested the wand on her clit gently, her eyes instantly fluttering as if she was possessed, body jerking.

“Daddy, my clit..” she bit at her lip tight, elbows pressing into her legs to keep them apart. She was gonna take all of it, and she was gonna make sure he got the show of his life.

“Daddy, it’s vibrating right on my clit..” she was at a loss, her mouth parted and her eyes fighting to stay focused on the screen

“Daddy, get in me please…” she gripped the dildo with her other hand, bringing it to her entrance letting it slide into her slowly. She froze, her throat going tight and her toes pointing up towards the ceiling.

Daddy got you, baby, I promise I got you. Ima take care of that pussy. Don’t worry princess…

Erik reclined back against his chair, sweaty body sticking to the leather. He kicked off the rest of his sweatpants, legs finally free as he jerked madly. He couldn’t take the feel of the hot leather anymore so he decided to stand, dick pointed at the computer screen almost aiming at her entrance.

Stroke that nasty pussy… that’s it… fuck that shit up girl I’m not playing witchu.

She stroked her pussy and held the wand over her clit, making herself a thriving quivering mess. She was moaning louder now, damn near blowing out Erik’s speakers with her pleads. She shook her head at the feeling, speaking in tongues, wiggling on the bed in a frenzy. She focused her eyes on her pussy eyebrows frowned in concentration, damn near forcing the wand heavily on her clit.

“OH!” 

She lifted the wand from her clit, releasing the dildo, her entrance quivering and growing tight as she stilled, head falling back.

Nah, put that shit back on your clit girl, you wanted this you gon’ finish for daddy

Erik waited, chest heaving with his dreads stuck to his sweaty forehead and his glasses fogged. She rested the wand back to her clit, crying out loud, her lower body tilting from the bed again.

“Oh, oh, shit. Omg,” she lifted it again, her head falling back on the mattress. She smacked at her pussy softly, causing her body to jerk.

“Daddy it’s so fucking strong..” 

Ember lowered it slowly to her clit again, her body automatically tensing up as she dug her nails into her thighs, scraping her skin. She moved her body a little but it only made it worse causing her to cover her mouth tight, her pussy tilting to the view of the camera. she wiggled from side to side, eyes watering up underneath the lace, limbs shaking. The waterfall that followed was one to remember and Erik had to control his motion by gripping his dick tight. He let out a loud growl as her liquid soaked the silk beneath her. He threw his head back, blowing air through his cheeks in frustration. He wanted to fuck her little ass up so damn bad. He wanted to fuck her guts up, grip her neck tight, repeatedly pound her tight pussy over and over. He couldn’t take it, and he never needed a girl as bad as her.

I wanna stick my dick in this girl so fucking bad, bruh... 

His back muscles flexed as he watches her body relax, that same light giggle coming back. She bit at her finger, eyes glued to the screen. The chimes and likes were off the charts and she blushed crimson from the attention causing Erik to obsess even more than he already had.

“You still got one more nut in you daddy?” 

Ember gripped her dildo, getting up from the bed. She picked up her camera, aiming it towards her hardwood floor, placing the suction of the dildo there. She kneeled her thick ass over the dildo, jiggling a little before sinking down onto the toy. She hissed low, giving her ass a hard smack before bouncing on the toy like it was the real deal. Erik jerked madly again, his free hand gripping the edge of the desk as he leaned further into the computer. The air from his lungs suspended in his throat, and his eyebrows were scrunched in passion. He felt so good and he didn’t want it to end, watching her bounce on her dildo, the wetness from her pussy glistening it, working that toy like she needed it.

fuck that toy up girl DAMN. 

Erik closed his eyes in concentration, his motions becoming more and more sloppy as he jerked his long dick rough. He wanted to meet his end with her like he always did, greedily accepting two orgasms from watching her. She bounced harder, her head falling and her hair shielding her face. Her ass was non-stop and the arch in her back had drizzles of sweat falling there. Erik wanted to lick her skin and pussy clean with his needy tongue and it made him want to cum even harder.

fuck… I just wanna cum. 

He was moaning now, jerking his hips with his motions.

“Daddy I need you to cum for me.” 

His entire being focused in on her words. “Cum for me daddy I want that shit deep in me.” 

She looked back at the camera, her eyes low and lustful.

“Daddy I deserve it don’t I?”

yes you do

“I deserve to be fucked like this don’t I?”

mmmm, FUCK yes…

“What else do I deserve for being a good girl daddy?” She slammed down hard on the dick, voice rising.

You deserve to cum all over that fucking dick.

His lower belly began to tighten, and so did hers.

“I deserve to cum daddy? because I wanna cum so fucking bad.”

She lowered her body, hands spread against the floor, the strength of her hips rocking along the dildo.

“Daddy…yes… YES, DADDY. yes… its cumming” 

She bit at her forearm eyebrows knitted.

shit baby Daddy cumming too… 

Erik threw his head back body stiffening

FUCKKK!!!! 

He jerked forward roughly, his cum flying and spilling all over the computer screen, dripping right over her ass She stilled over the dildo, face cradled in the crook of her arm, liquid, and cream dripping and pooling around her. Both Erik and Ember were still, breathing uneven and horse. Erik sat down on his chair, sinking into the leather weakly. She lifted from the floor, grabbing up her camera, and placing it back where it was.

“Well. Daddy, that was really good,” She rubbed at her sweaty skin, “We can pick up where we left off tomorrow okay?” 

She blew a kiss at the camera, waving seductively before leaning forward, ending the live video. Erik sat still, eyes glued to his cum covered screen, before tilting his head back, eyes focused on the sky view of his LA home.

Fuck. 

Erik spoke in barely an audible, 

Does she really live in New York?

[snarky-gourmet]

She deleted so I guess all of you got what you wanted. She won’t answer messages on kakao or texts. She didn’t deserve this.

Sorry this took me more than a day to get to, I don’t usually check my inbox unless I get a notif, and then it took a while to write everything out as it is quite lengthy and then on top of that the incidents related to this topic kept persisting literally as I wrote it :)

I checked the time stamp on this when I saw it and it seems like you sent this about an hour after I talked to Madds’ friend yesterday–we had a very civil and pleasant talk that cleared up a lot of stuff and she informed me that Madds is doing just fine, which I’m extremely glad about. **Edit: on March 21st, 2 days after the first conversation between us, I received messages from Madds’ friend to alert us that Madds has contacted an attorney, and then continued to falsely accuse those of us in the group chat, including those who have never had ANY involvement in this from the beginning of the disagreement until now, of stalking and harassing her. Those screenshots will be included at the end of the post.**

There seems to be a lot of rumours going on and a lot of people are under the wrong impression given the fact that Maddison has spread falsehood after falsehood in order to make herself look like the victim in a situation that should have been initially so insignificant, there was no valid reason for victim-hood on either side.

This conflict with Madds has been ongoing for several months now, and all of us involved are honestly done with the false accusations, vague-posting, and borderline harassment. As a result, the decision to make this post was reached.

This post’s purpose is to clear our names and make it known that the things Madds has been saying about us are not true. We do not wish for ANYONE to go after Madds or her friends. We would never want harm to come to her. All we want is for this to stop, and according to her party, that’s what she wants as well, so here we go.

Let me make it clear:

None of us from the fandom-oriented group chat Madds used to be in, and then left on her own after a disagreement, have ever:

-Stalked Madds through her public blog or through any other platforms

-Bullied her off the site

-Stabbed her in the back

-Sent her anon hate/death threats or asked others to on our behalf

-Done anything at all that was malicious towards Madds at any time

The only times any of us have contacted Madds personally since she left the group chat have been to try and reason with her, to try and console her, to try and ask her to stop making vague posts about us, to stop blaming us for the anons she was getting, and to ask her to stop trying to turn shared friends/mutuals against us and let the incident go.

The only times any of us have been to Madds’ new blog after she deleted her old one have been to check on her well being, as we would never want harm to come to her, as well as when she has mentioned any of us by name and people who were shared friends/mutuals brought it to our attention.

I will not be mentioning all names of people involved in this conflict as none of us from the group chat at least, wish to drag any more people into this mess who really didn’t have anything to do with it.

Until this point, my personal role in all of this has been little more than a bystander. I am still an active member of the group chat that Madds left, and I know everyone in there very well. I have witnessed what has happened since the start and with the permission of everyone else from the gc, I’m happy to provide answers as to what has actually been going on.

Below the cut is a timeline containing all screenshots we have of everything that has gone on from the beginning of the conflict leading up to a few days ago now, when Madds apparently made the choice to delete her blog completely unprompted by any of us, who were all making it a point to distance ourselves more than before after she threatened to call the cops on us in a text post because she thought we were stalking her.

Tw for in-depth mentions of suicide baiting and implications of self-harm among other things that may be distressing for some to read.

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The initial disagreement that started all of this took place on November 21st last year, and it is quite frankly, embarrassing and unnecessary that such a small scale disagreement escalated to the extent that it did, and is still ongoing despite our (the gc’s) attempts to reason with, and then when that didn’t work, cease contact with Madds.

We were discussing Key’s upcoming album when Madds (sunshinekibum) brought up how she wishes that sh/awols were more hyped about it, which was a valid point of discussion to be made.

Madds expressed how she felt that she and other lockets couldn’t be happy without others having a negative reaction to it. Kiri brought up the fact that it was close to December, and therefore it was not anyone’s fault if they were not in high spirits, but made it clear that lockets had every right to be happy and there was nothing holding them back from that. Madds apologised, appearing to have taken it the wrong way, then removed herself from the server.

After she had left, Kiri messaged Madds via tumblr to talk things through.

Kiri reiterated that due to the timing of Key’s album being released, she and some other sh/awols were having a hard time being excited and clarified that her words were not meant to be taken as a personal attack on Madds. She apologised, as did Madds, but Madds did not understand that Kiri was not claiming her words to be insensitive. She instead appeared to be using the incident to beat herself up. Kiri pointed out to Madds that she had made a valid point and the way she felt was justified, so there was no reason she should be so harsh on herself.

Madds then explained the reason behind why she left the group chat, citing a difference in viewpoints as well as a desire to not cause any harm, which she had never caused in the first place. Efforts were made to try to get her to see that and possibly invite her back to the gc on her own terms.

Kiri brings up how Madds is misunderstanding her words and feelings about the disagreement in the group chat and doesn’t seem to be interested in seeing her side to things. Madds responds by clarifying that her words were not aimed at Kiri specifically but rather meant as a generalised statement from what she had personally seen. She also acknowledged that proximity to December as a factor, but also stated that she still felt as if she were going to face criticism for being excited by those who were not. Kiri then defends herself, citing Madds’ word choice and tone as the reason for her own words in the group chat.

She continues and points out that Madds is the one beating herself up in this situation, and that no one thought ill of her and no one was harmed by Madds’ words. Kiri then clarifies again what exactly the source of the disagreement was, and requests that Madds does not twist her words as a means to punish herself. Madds apologises.

After this, a bit of time passed, and Madds changed her Tumblr URL to “imaginemp3″. During this same time, there was a post made by Madds that Kiri later alludes to, that appears to reference the disagreement that happened between her and Kiri in the gc, suggesting that she had resentment, or at the very least, remaining displeasure with Kiri for said disagreement. It was later deleted.

Shortly after, Kiri deactivated her previous blog due to an extremely high amount of anon hate and desire to distance herself from the drama at hand. A mutual friend of ours and Madds was also receiving such anons.

After Kiri deactivated, Madds began receiving anons as well, written in the same tonal and vocabulary pattern as the ones Kiri and the mutual friend received, suggesting that they were all sent by the same person. We suspect that Madds is the one who sent them to Kiri, the other recipient, and herself as well. This is the event that Madds claims was all of us in the gc “bullying her off the site”. None of us sent those anons to her. Unfortunately, no screenshots of the ones Kiri nor the other person received exist due to A) the upsetting nature of the messages and B) at the time they received the messages, there was no reason to save evidence of them, seeing as how it was on in retrospect that we suspected Madds of being behind them.

Above are some of the anons that Madds had received, accusing her for being the reason Kiri had deactivated and for suicide baiting her. As a result, Madds makes the last post at the top of the image.

Thinking the worst, many of the people from the group chat and who followed Madds reached out to her via dms and text.

Among those people were Izzy (keyjapandebut) and someone who will be referred to as Sunny, as it is unnecessary to bring their name into undesired drama. Sunny is the 3rd person besides Kiri and Madds to have received the anons just mentioned.

Izzy initiates the conversation and tries to make sure that Madds is alright after the anons she got. Madds deflects, expressing concern for Kiri as priority even after Izzy states that Kiri is fine. Madds continues to place all of the blame on herself unnecessarily. This is when she alludes to the vent post previously mentioned, denying that it was about Kiri or the subject of their disagreement. (Due to the timing of the anons that both Kiri and then Madds received however, as well as the wording in Madds’ post, the opposite appears to be true. Izzy attempts to talk Madds down from the place she was in, and he tries to reason with her.

After Izzy’s first attempt to explain to Madds that she can still talk to Kiri if she needed to, Madds claims that she had been blocked by Kiri on the platforms she could have reached her on, which was not true according to what Kiri had shown us. The most likely explanation, if Madds had indeed sent 4 different discord messages to Kiri, but they had not been delivered, is that since they no longer had a shared server, discord would not deliver Madds’ messages to Kiri. However, when a message does not go through on discord, a bot will reply to the sender with the reason why.

Madds then states that she had requested Sunny to give her phone number to Kiri.

(*There is a missing screen shot before the first message from Izzy in this set. They were taken to show Kiri during this last attempt of his to mediate between the two, then deleted from his device immediately after, so he does not remember the context of the first message.)

Madds once again just asks for Izzy to deliver the message that she says sorry to Kiri and the rest of us. At the same time that Izzy is talking to Madds, he is delivering what Madds asks him to to Kiri. Kiri asks Izzy to relay to Madds that all she wants from this is for Madds to move on. To this request, Madds says she cannot and says that we “can all go be fine without her”. Izzy asks what Madds meant by this, reassures her that what she is suggesting is not necessary for a resolution, and that she had not caused Kiri the amount of distress she thinks she caused her from the disagreement in the gc. To this, Madds seems to shut off, repeating “okay im glad she’s okay”. Izzy picks up on the fact that Madds isn’t really listening anymore, and points it out. Madds continues to just say that “we don’t have to worry about her”.

Izzy attempts to explain as someone who was still on good terms with Madds at this point in time that ceasing all concern over her wasn’t possible, but Madds argued, claiming that since we “all have each other there’s no reason any of us need her”. Izzy sees that as long as Madds is acting like this and continuing to make herself out to both be the sole reason behind all of this as well as the victim at the same time, and tries to reach a resolution with Madds. Madds then says goodbye, that she’ll be okay, and that she is sorry for causing trouble, but will “make sure it doesn’t ever happen again” (that clearly didn’t happen). This was Izzy’s last interaction with Madds.

None of us blamed her for anything that was going on at this point, nor did we ever say anything to imply that we wanted her gone or to feel guilt. All we wanted was for her to stop beating herself up so much–as none of us saw a reason why the disagreement back in November should have caused such distress–and to listen to the words we had to say, as we were genuinely concerned for Madds’ well being.

It was only after later examination of the language that she used during her talk with Izzy, the fact that Madds was still connecting this back to the rather small disagreement that took place, her initial reaction to the disagreement, and the eventual realisation that all of the anons that had been received by Madds, Kiri, and Sunny had the same syntax, that an inkling of suspicion ever rose up in regards to Madds. Izzy in particular became suspicious of Madds due to his first encounter with her when her url was peachykibummie. Madds was a stranger to him, a stranger receiving suicide-baiting anons with the exact same syntax as the ones she, Kiri, and Sunny received. Izzy’s efforts to console her led to a friendship that is now history.

A little while after Izzy and Madds had their conversation, Madds and Sunny had talked. Sunny had told Madds that Kiri wished to speak with her.

(Kiri: Blue Text —— Madds: Grey Text)

The second message that Kiri sends addresses the apparent overreaction Madds has displayed since their disagreement. At this point, suspicion that Madds was acting like this out of desire for some sort of attention was starting to rise up.

To Kiri’s questioning, Madds acts as if she does not understand what Kiri is referring to. Kiri was aware of the way Madds had spoken in the chat with Izzy, as he had been the middleman between Kiri and Madds.

At the bottom of the first image in the set/top of the second image, Kiri brings up the fact that she did not receive any sort of messages from Madds as she had claimed from the conversation with Izzy. Kiri also brings up the post that Madds had made that seemed to have been about her and that seems to have kicked off the series of anons that Kiri, Madds, and Sunny all got.

Madds responds by claiming that she never lied and that Kiri deleted and blocked her over the post she had made, when in reality, Kiri had deactivated due to the anons, and denies that the post was about Kiri, despite the subject matter of the post being the same as the disagreement right down to the details.

(Last text cut off on the bottom reads “Move on. I have.”)

In this series of texts Madds does not understand that everyone was scared for her and that is why multiple individuals checked up on her after she made an alarming goodbye post after the anons she got were suicide baiting her. She then tries to turn the tables on Kiri and accuses her of being the one who is still upset over the disagreement, when the thing Kiri is actually upset over is the post, the anons, Madds essentially disregarding everyone’s concern while attempting to cause guilt at the same time, and then lying about several different things that have happened.

In Kiri’s message she brings up that it was believed that Madds was the one behind all of the anons, as supported by a multitude of details about them. She then clarifies the fact that people checked on her out of concern, as previously mentioned. Kiri also brings up the apparent guilt-tripping that Madds is doing and mentions that she wishes that Madds gets help, but doesn’t wish for Madds to use her as a means to punish herself, which is what she was doing. Lastly, Kiri expresses that she only wanted to ensure that Madds was alright, and that at the end of it all, nothing in the disagreement was important enough for all of this to come out of it.

Those were the last messages exchanged until December 28th.

On December 28th, Kiri has messaged Madds prefacing her request that she drop the situation once and for all after after Kiri had heard from Sunny that Madds was still not past the conflict, and had worked Sunny up enough to cause serious upset, with an apology. Kiri then brings up the fact that she blocked Madds in an attempt to put everything behind them and create distance.

Madds retorts that she had not tried to contact anyone except for Sunny since Kiri had blocked her. Madds then argues that what she says to Sunny about Kiri, who is, once again, someone who is a friend of both Kiri and Madds at this point, is none of her business and that Kiri has “her clean break’ due to the fact that Madds has not talked to her directly.

While it is true that Madds had not spoken to Kiri personally, she had tried to turn Sunny against Kiri, making Kiri out to be malicious towards Madds, and Madds herself the victim. That is what Kiri refers to in her first message in the second picture.

Madds says that it was an honest question for Sunny, and that she is allowed to ask questions and have her own opinions like everyone else. No one had implied that she was not allowed to have her own thoughts and ask questions to Sunny, the question was simply why she had done so if she had supposedly moved on. Kiri acknowledges Madds’ point, and continues asking what Madds’ goal was in asking if she really wanted nothing to do with her.

Madds responds by claiming that her inquiry to Sunny was out of concern for Sunny. Kiri then brings up the fact that while doing so, Madds had caused a significant level of distress to Sunny. Madds responds, suggesting that she did not understand how she had hurt Sunny. Kiri explains that there wouldn’t be a point due to Madds sole response to previous attempts at both Sunny and Kiri explaining how she has caused them harm has been that she “saw how it could come off that way” while never acknowledging what she had done. Kiri then elaborates by telling Madds that Sunny had said to Kiri that Madds had breached Sunny’s trust by attempting to turn her against Kiri.

Madds says that she is getting different stories on the matter, but apologizes for causing issues for Sunny and Kiri. Madds then brings up that her hurting Sunny does not excuse Kiri from hurting Sunny, which was never an argument Kiri tried to make in the situation. Madds also brings up that she wishes to continue the cease of contact that was previously between her and Kiri, and attempts to deflect any further discussion on the matter by claiming that Sunny does not want to be in the middle, which she would not have been if Madds had not tried to turn Sunny against Kiri.

Kiri points out that Madds has no knowledge of how she and Sunny had resolved things between them, and brings attention to the fact that Kiri has not mentioned Madds to Sunny or anyone else, but Madds was in fact mentioning Kiri in poor regards to Sunny, and that was the issue currently at hand.

Madds claims that Kiri is the one upset, and not herself, despite the fact that she had attempted to turn Sunny against Kiri for no apparent reason. Madds again cites concern for Sunny as being the motive behind asking why Sunny was still friends with Kiri. Madds apologises that her actions had hurt Kiri but does not feel as if she was in the wrong for her actions as they were supposedly out of concern for Sunny. She then claims again that she had let the disagreement go a while ago.

Kiri, done with being given the run-around by Madds, suggests a mutual agreement between the two of them to not bring each other up in any capacity any more, and that the two of them part ways and have their peace. Madds responds negatively, does not agree to the proposition, and again brings up that Kiri had contacted her first, which would not have happened had Madds not upset Sunny, and again pushes that what she says to others is none of Kiri’s business, apparently even if it directly involves Kiri.

To this, Kiri says that Sunny is not Madds’ friend, and Madds deflects by saying that Kiri and Sunny have different opinions on that matter and that it is not her issue. The last messages are sent by Kiri and are a request for Madds to gain maturity when dealing with conflict.

After this, there was no contact between any of us and Madds for a significant period of time. Madds had deleted her blog of her own volition. We had no reason to bring up her name in any capacity in the group chat, therefore we didn’t.

When things had settled, Kiri had created a new blog. Sometime during this duration, Madds had also remade and began claiming that we bullied her off the site. She began making vague posts that were in regards to us as well as posts that mentioned Kiri’s name and old URL specifically. These posts ranged from petty to the more malicious ones that were of Madds telling people the falsehood that we drove her off Tumblr.

There was no stalking involved to find her new blog, and to accuse us of such a thing is ludicrous. We are all in the same fandom, and due to this, Madds’ new blog was stumbled upon. We had no idea it was actually her until people who knew us alerted us of easytolovemp3 (Madds) talking shit about us, specifically Kiri. 2 and 2 were put together. Still then, only a handful of us who were actively present in the gc’s conversation at this time actually knew this was Madds, as the rest of us, namely myself and 1 other individual, were at our jobs at the time. Izzy and Kiri both blocked easytolovemp3 as soon as they knew it was Madds, not wishing to have contact with her.

Below is an image of a one of the petty incidents, essentially falsely accusing Kiri of being a kboo. This was brought to our attention through someone who was a shared mutual of both Madds and Kiri on their new blogs. You can see Kiri mentioned by name, and that is how this got around to us.

We were never actively dwelling on Madds’ new blog (or stalking as she put it) and until 2 weeks ago, two of us still didn’t know her new URL. One of us only found out yesterday. As a result, we do not have screenshots of all of the things she said during this time, nor did we save any of the screenshots others sent to us. The thought that this would be a still escalating issue at this point did not cross our minds back then, and honestly? We didn’t want to save the needlessly upsetting posts Madds had made.

Eventually, Kiri started receiving anon hate on her new blog and quietly abandoned it.

Sunny and Madds are still in contact at that point. Due to unrelated reasons, Izzy had deleted his blog some time in December. He recreated a new one this month with the purpose to have it as an art blog. It does not have his english name on it and the focus was on a different fandom.

Now we get to the point on the timeline that took place last week (the week of March 11th).

I had direct messaged Izzy on discord asking if he knew that Madds had deleted all of her posts except for several alarming and concerning ones, and he checked it out. I had gotten word from this from a friend. This was the first time that I had been to Madds’ blog and the first time I even knew this was her.

On her blog, everything was deleted except for posts of her once again accusing us of stalking her, as well as her essentially suggesting that she was going to commit suicide.

Both Izzy and I were extremely worried for Madds, as we would never want anything bad to happen to her. Despite the fact that she had accused the gc of stalking, bullying her off the site, sending her death threats, stabbing her in the back, etc., the fact that it seemed like she was going to harm herself was extremely upsetting. She is someone who we used to be friends with, after all.

In the first image, Madds claims in the tags of the bottom post that half of us have her blocked, which was not true. Only Izzy on his old blog and Kiri on her new one had her blocked. Izzy did not yet have Madds blocked on the newest blog he had just made. Everyone else in the gc had also not blocked her because some of us didn’t know about her blog until the most recent post about us “bullying her off tumblr” came to our attention and some of us had absolutely no involvement with the original disagreement and therefore, had no reason to even think about Madds. Kayden, for example, never had her blocked and had no involvement in any of this besides his proximity to Kiri and being in the group chat. We had indeed not interacted with her, but her claim that half of us had her blocked is incorrect.

We never sent her any of the anons she got on her imaginemp3 account, therefore her claims that we ruined the “one place she felt safe” and “ruined almost all her friendships” have no grounds and seem to be made purely for the sake of getting attention. Again, we strongly suspect that she was the one who sent her own self those anons. Additionally, if you recall the conversations Madds had with Kiri, she is told what exactly she did wrong: the issue was not the trivial disagreement back in November of last year, but the way she was spreading rumours, twisting words, and trying to turn people against us. Her claim to be the one “crying about it almost daily struggling with figuring out what she did wrong” makes no sense.

Shortly after we viewed the post, she had blocked both Izzy and I. Odd since neither of us had made contact with her or mentioned her in any way. It is unclear how she got Izzy’s new blog’s URL as his blog is no longer Sh/inee-oriented, has his English name no where on it, and no one outside of the group chat was privy to his new blog belonging to him. This, along with the timing of some of the vague posts Madds made previously, lead us to the conclusion that we believe someone in our group chat was essentially serving as a spy and sending Madds information on us. It does not add up any other way. The person/people who were possible suspects were removed from the group chat and we have had no further incidents directly tied to our suspicions.

On the left there is a new post coming after the ones in the left-hand image from the last set. On the right are more anons that she got.

The message on the top is the only reason Izzy and I continued checking on Madds’ blog at this point despite both of us now being blocked. It was to check on someone who seems to have posted a final goodbye–that’s what you do when you’re worried about someone, and we had more than reason to be worried.

Please take note of the one anon with the “x” signing the end of their message for later reference.

Above is an image of the post Madds had made after the ones in the previous set. Izzy had checked Madds’ blog early in the morning of last Tuesday, the 19th, to see if she was alright. He messaged me to tell me about it, as Madds was now threatening legal action against us, and I checked for myself, extremely alarmed.

In this post you can see a whole list of accusations Madds has against us, some very bitter adjectives, a lot of nasty names, and of course, the threat to contact the police. The nature of this post speaks for itself, so I don’t really feel the need to dissect it too much. “Terrified to make any move online because I knew you all would be waiting to ruin me again,” however, is especially interesting due to the fact that she was the one slandering Kiri’s name in particular, and every single time Kiri got a new blog, she received an avalanche of anons extremely similar to the others she had gotten before, some even bringing up personal matters that she only ever mentioned in the privacy of the group chat.

Considering the fact that we had done nothing in this extensive list, and she would have known this considering she was the one who had fabricated these baseless accusations, her threats to call the police on a group entirely composed of minorities, the majority being non-white and not a single one of us being cishet, honestly comes off as insidious.

(Some anons that were extremely similar in nature have been omitted due to the length of this post.)

On the left side of the screen shot, the first anon censors out Kiri’s most well known past URL, blingblingis. Madds clarifies that she was previously imaginemp3 before she deleted that blog and remade. “What she tried to pull with me,” alludes to the fabricated stalking, bullying, and other false accusations directed at Kiri and the rest of us. Madds then mentions in the tags that she knows that Kiri has a new blog, however she claims to not know the URL.

The second image in the screenshot can be taken as proof that Madds had spread rumours about Kiri bullying her off the site. Unless Madds sent this anon to her own self, in which case it is evidence of something else.

Please continue to note the “x” signing the end of that anon.

After taking note of all of this, Izzy and I both decided that it was in our best interest to no longer check on Madds even out of concern for her safety. We didn’t want for her to mistake that as stalking and push her towards legal action. It was unclear how Madds even knew we were checking on her at this point.

Later that day, I briefly and vaguely mentioned in the dms to a tumblr user I am friends with what was going on. Without me mentioning Madds by name, only (to be read in sarcastic tones) “How great it was to have someone who you used to be friends with threatening to call the cops on you and your friends over falsified accusations of stalking, harassing, intimidation, and bullying, all because she didn’t know how to handle a tiny fight over kpop,” she, who will be referred to as Moon, immediately knew who I was talking about.

As it turns out, Moon and Madds had spoken before, and Moon told me in a separate message that Madds was giving out a list of names of everyone in the group chat who she was accusing of stalking her, to those who messaged her asking for it. She also mentioned that Madds had told her the fabricated story of everything she claimed we had done to her, which made “us all sound fucking awful”.

The next day, Moon alerted me that Madds had deleted her tumblr out of the blue.

About an hour after Moon had told me that, Madds’ friend, who I mentioned way back at the very beginning of this post, messaged me.

Due to the fact that this individual is a minor that Madds has dragged into a dispute between adults and used as a middleman, they will be referred to as Nova to protect their identity. Please do not ask for their url. Please do not seek them out.

Nova begins interrogating me, who had no in-depth involvement prior to checking on Madds’ blog during her most recent alarming series of posts. Nova demands to know why the supposed “stalking” is going on “even though no one seems to want to talk to her after all of this” (correct!)

I clarify that none of us are stalking Madds, nor have ever stalked her or acted with any form of malice towards her. I also bring up the fact that I didn’t even know easytolovemp3 was Madds until my friend had seen the post making false accusations against us and told me. The fact that she did not have me blocked until after I looked at her blog is also something I brought light to, as well as the fact that the only time any of us from the gc have made contact with her since she left have been to ask her to stop posting about us.

Nova then presses for why we all still wanted to know about Madds and expresses that she thinks that it would’ve been better for us all just to leave it.

I do my best to remain extra civil during the exchange, as I do not wish to make things somehow worse than being threatened with legal action.

At the top of the left side, Nova has sent another message directly following her last one, asking for further clarification on the situation that’s taking place.

I provide a watered down and brief summary of what had happened to that point. I also state that the only reason anyone from the gc even knew about Madds’ new blog was due to the fact that she had literally mentioned Kiri by name. That Madds’ name was only brought up when Madds herself had done something directly affecting any of us, and that was also the only time Kiri had contacted her, was also brought up.

Nova asks how word got around that Madds remade and I clarify again that it was due to the fact that she had mentioned Kiri by name and everyone who knew put 2 and 2 together.

Nova presses again to know if we’re still worried about her, and I answer by saying that we are just worried about whether she may hurt herself, but no one has checked on her blog recently due to the fact that we don’t want our concern to be taken as “stalking”.

Nova accepts my explanation and then claims that Madds is alright and is “pretty much completely moved on now”, which is exactly the impression we all got from being threatened with legal action (this is sarcasm).

Not wanting to stir any issues between Nova and myself, as the conversation was actually going in a very civil manner, I say that I am glad that Madds is alright after her previous posts.

Nova thanks me for answering the questions and I assume that we are done with That.

However, on the 21st I received the first message on the right side of the screen shot from Nova.

Sunny has stated that she got the same message from Nova. She tried to calmly explain herself and Nova replied by telling her she doesn’t have the right to feel upset, in spite of Sunny’s urging that she didn’t do anything.

Nova notifies me that Madds has followed through with her threat of legal action in the form of contacting an attorney, and has named a handful of us from the group chat that she has accused of stalking and harassing her. She then tells me to pass along the message, which I do.

I write back, asking Nova to tell Madds that none of us have done the things she is accusing us of, and now attempting to prosecute us for, and that I am planning to make a post with every single screen shot of proof we are in possession of proving that she has lied and fabricated every single part of her story she has spread around about us as a response to this anon I am answering right now. I then pass along the promise from the gc that we all plan to fully cooperate if Madds gets an attorney, as we have done nothing wrong. This promise still stands.

Nova starts out by demanding to know how I knew her name, to which I respond that Kiri had told me who she was when I passed her warning of legal action along. I then begin questioning Nova as to what exactly Madds wants from all of this, as it has been literally months, and not only has she not let it go, but she has progressively made the situation worse for every single person involved, and has even dragged people who were never initially involved into it.

To my question, Nova claims that all Madds wanted was “to be left alone”. Nova then states that she remade with the intent of none of us ever finding her again, despite Madds mentioning Kiri by name, and then carries on to imply that it was somehow unthinkable that myself, Kiri, and the rest of the gc had access to Madds’ public blog that well over half of us were never blocked from. Additionally, Nova brings up the fact that Kiri had vented to Sunny about the fact that Madds was still not letting things go between them and was talking shit about all of us without any provocation whatsoever on any of our behalves. Nova also claims that “none of this would have happened if Kiri had just left her blog alone and stopped dragging (people?) into it” despite the fact that Kiri, nor any of us were actively “stalking” Madds’ blog, and we were all trying to stay away from her. Once again: Madds was the one dragging people into this. Nova again reiterates her claim that Madds “just wanted to be left alone and requests for all of us to “let it be over”, which is something we were all very much trying to do before shit hit the fan.

I make it clear that “Izzy blocked Madds as soon as he found out it was her in order to prevent any contact with her. Alex hasn’t been in the gc in forever. Kayden’s only association with this is that he is in the group chat. Kiri only found out about Madds’ new blog due to the fact that Madds kept on vagueing about her” (and blocked her immediately)  and that due to the fact that we are all in the same fandom, it’s not as far fetched at all as Nova, and apparently Madds, are claiming it to be that Madds public blog was found out by us when people notified us of the slander going on.

Nova only says “She’s gone you don’t have to worry about it” in response to my message.

I bring up the fact that Madds is the only one still hung up over everything, and point out that we never talk about her unless she has done something to slander us recently, as we have no reason to. Again, I make it clear that we never did any of the things Madds claims we did and that she has painted herself as the victim in what, in reality, was a victimless disagreement. Lastly, I express exasperation with the situation, stating I don’t know what else Nova wants me to say here.

Nova responds by repeating that Madds is gone, which sounds like she is suggesting she is now dead in order to make us feel guilty. Thanks! Shame on you.

From this point until otherwise noted, it is a collection of accounts from Sunny as well as texts between Kiri and Alex to further back everything up.

Here is Kiri messaging Alex to confirm that Alex has only talked to Madds once, when they had messaged her after the initial disagreement and Madds was receiving anons telling her to kill herself among other things.

This is a quote from a conversation between Sunny and Madds after Sunny found out that Madds had posted threatening to call the cops on us. Screenshots might be able to be retrieved, but the original conversation between the two has been deleted since it took place.

Sunny: whatever you do, I am begging you to leave Izzy out of this. Please think about what the consequences could be about calling the cops on a mentally ill trans black man. Please.

Madds: I don’t care. If he wasn’t involved he should have nothing to worry about. Maybe he should have thought about that.

Here is a screenshot of texts between Kiri and Sunny discussing that Madds had then told the same thing to Sunny that she had said about Izzy:

Sunny has also provided the following statements:

“She (Madds) would often message me to ask how I feel about this stuff and said “don’t you know they hate me for things I didn’t do” and then mock me when I said I was not understanding.”

“(Madds) Suicide baited me when she knows that’ll work to scare me because of my PTSD.” This is in reference to the fact that Sunny’s childhood best friend killed herself and Sunny had confided this information to Madds when they were on friendly terms.

“She sends me this shit whenever I unblock her to tell her to stop posting about y’all, then threatens to delete and/or hurt/kill herself when I don’t feel sorry for her:

“

Sunny has also stated that she received this same exact anon that I am answering right now! That is so interesting and not at all suspicious or questionable!

Now if I can please ask you to recall the anons with the x signing the end of their messages.

This is a screenshot provided by Kiri (Kirious) of an anon an unrelated blog had received while she and Madds were still friends, before the conflict had started.

In this screenshot of the conversation in the group chat, you can see a photo sent by Kiri of that anon, calling blingblingis a “known bully and liar” as well as “literal trash”. The anon then tells the blog to turn off anon if Kiri sends her “minions”, presumably meaning the rest of us in the gc, after them. The message is signed with an “x”. We suspect that this was Madds sending that anon to that blog due to the fact that it is signed with an x just like the ones Madds had gotten.

Also just like the one that Madds’ friend, Nova had received:

(Screen shot taken by me after Nova messaged me yesterday and before Kiri told me who she was. I had visited Nova’s blog trying to figure out who the hell I was talking to)

The common use of the word “minions” is also a very interesting coincidence. Make of those what you will, but it’s clear that it’s likely either Madds herself or someone “doing her bidding for her”. They have censored Kiri’s name out.

Several of the anons that Madds was receiving longer ago, before this mess, that caused Izzy to initially reach out to Madds at the start of their friendship were also tagged with x’s.

Lastly, but still related, here is a screenshot of the group chat when Kiri got anons mentioning her home life, something that she only discussed in the group chat, and therefore, was only known to members of the group. This also took place before November 21st. These anons were sent to Kiri after the unrelated blog got the anon signed with an “x”.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that having to provide a ton of screenshots to clear our names after all this damage Madds did was unforeseen, screenshots of the actual anons do not exist.

If you’ve made it to the very end of this very lengthy post, I want to thank you for the time you took to read it.

Let it be known that this post was made as an attempt to finally put a stop to Maddison doing the exact thing she accused us of doing so persistently: stalking, harassing, threatening, lying, backstabbing, sending violently malicious anons, and bullying people into remaking their blogs.

We do not wish for ANYONE to go after those who have ties to Madds, nor those who got dragged into this or provided us with helpful information, and that is why we have omitted so many names. If those people wish to come forward with their identity, that is up to them and only them.

So, no anon. We did not get what we wanted. Thank you for asking, though. We just want this to stop, it’s been long overdue.

[tae-kun]

If the Main Reason why you log onto Tumblr is for Porn, then you don’t understand what made Tumblr special in the first place

Tumblr is not a Porn Site

It was never intended to be, so for the people that are saying stuff like “Tumblr never supported our sex work anyway” you’re 100% correct. Being allowed to post Pornography isn’t the same as being a source for it. Over the years Tumblr has been ran rampant with porn to the point that content creators that did other stuff that didn’t relate to porn slowly started to go to other platforms; Since their work was being overshadowed by the sheer volume of porn and they struggled to get any attention on their work.

You people are acting like Tumblr is attacking sex workers as if this was their main and only place to earn money for their work.

There are porn sites that are made to promote AND support sex workers. Hell PornHub will pay people for their sextapes and has multiple systems in place for them to make money off Ad revenue alongside having a tip system, content protection and other stuff

Anyone that was serious about their sex work would have been using sites like this instead of relying on Tumblr as a main source of revenue or promotion.

Tumblr is a trash place to try to promote anything! Constant spamming of bots and tags, No reliable Notification system or way for your followers to see you’re new posts out of the sea of reblogs. So to act like these new changes are going to serious kill anyone that is in the sex work is flat out outrageous.

Hell a majority of the popular porn that was on here wasn’t even from amateurs making videos on here. People were taking porn from porn sites and making blogs centered around it and would constantly flood their blogs with this content which would then, overshadow any amateur worker on here that made their own work; since they had no to even compete with the constant bombardment of daily new stuff that these blogs were taking and using.

People would steal other peoples videos and get popular of it without even crediting the original creator and would even go as far as to SELL these videos and make more money of it than the actual people in the damn video.

So Tumblr was never an ideal place for sex work to begin with, so throw that excuse out. Most people only used Tumblr to promote their private snapchat or onlyfans account which you can still do in a regular selfie or post. There are thousands of people on Instagram making hundreds and thousands of dollars doing the same thing and they don’t have one titty out on their page. Just tight clothing and skimpy outfits.

If you’re really upset that you can’t watch porn on here after Dec 17

At first it was funny seeing people joke about the porn being gone. But some of y’all are really upset and mad that you need to actually go to a porn sites to watch porn???

Some of y’all don’t even post nudes or create anything that could be considered sexual and y’all saying “ima delete my blog since tumblr is trying to silence me”

(Side Note: Just because your post got flagged doesn’t mean it will be deleted. They already said stuff like this would happen as they added in this new system. So mistakes like these are bound to happen and will most likely be fixed in a week or so and have no negative affect on your blog. Y’all really acting like Tumblr is out to silence your love for cats and landscapes 🙄)

Like i said before there are plenty of sites to watch porn on and if your favorite sex worker is serious about their job then you will see them on there. Which only makes things easier for both of you. But lets be honest, most of y’all just like the idea of seeing porn without having to actually look for it, like it’s some nasty secret. On Tumblr you couldn’t escape porn even if you searched things that were unrelated to it. Tumblr gave you guys the perfect cover up for it and you guys went overboard with it and here we are. People are so quick to compare this issue to other Tumblr problems but there was never a issue as big as people with dick profile pics dming you no matter who you were (kids or adults)  and sending you nude pics; then Porn Bots popped up under everyone’s post no matter if you had the safety lock on or not.

You guys made hundreds of post saying how much you hate porn blogs getting tens of thousands of notes in agreement about it, You guys would put “no porn blogs allowed” in your description box or something similar in meaning.

And now when Tumblr puts a system in place to directly remove it, you guys try to back pedal and claim that it will kill sex workers, freedom of speech and sexuality based off opinions, assumptions and things that aren’t even in the policy change.

Some of y’all honestly suggested “Just add a age verification system” as a way to fix the porn issue.... That shit ain’t never worked since 2002! I got so use to lying on those things that i sometimes forget that i’m grown and that i don’t need to put “01/11/1975″

The only people that this severely hurts are

1a) People that steal porn from other sites to use on their blog to get followers, to then try sell promo slots

1b) People that are stealing other sex workers content and illegally selling them

2) Child Porn Blogs

THAT’S IT

And Honestly is that really a bad thing? Getting rid of people that were stealing other peoples stuff and making money off it and pedophiles.

The way tumblr was set up allowed blogs like these to thrive without any risk, outside of getting their blog deleted (just to make a new one) and it only continued the flood of porn which became the breeding grounds for Porn Bots

Tumblr is suppose to be a place to freely express all forms of art, ideas, and conversations. But because of the nonstop flood of porn, most people only know it for Porn and Emo kids. Which brings me back to my original statement

This isn’t a Porn Site

Porn became so over flooded on here that you didn’t even need to search to find it. All you had todo is take off the safe lock and search anything, even a city. There would be hundreds of porn pics and videos in every slot. And before you say “well just keep the safety lock on”

Any content that had cursing, fighting or even slight nudity got put behind there. So unless you were just on here for kpop, aesthetics and Steven Universe you weren’t really seeing anything different with that lock on.

( Another Side Note: For you people trying to compare the porn flood to white supremacy blogs need to stop it. All the time i’ve been on here i have never NEEEVVVEEER accidentally came across any pro white supremacy post or blog unless it was someone exposing them and their stupidity which would then cause them to delete their blog. If you are constantly seeing anything Pro Nazi, Pro White Supremacy, Pro homophobia or anything similar that supports bigotry; then you are actively searching for it and follow these people. These blogs don’t even make up 5% of the content seen on here with or without the lock. So trying to say that Tumblr supports these blogs since they’re still around is Mr. Fantastic level of reaching. These blogs have never been a serious issue to the point that Nazi Bots were created saying “Hate jews and blacks clck here for more ;)”. So stop this weak comparison.)

I created a Tumblr and made it one of my main platforms to create content on because of the communities and people i found on here.

I found Great stories and Dope artist on here. I found people being able to fully express themselves and find an audience for them that helped share their work through a simple reblog. But if you’ve been noticing or have been on here long enough, most content creators don’t use Tumblr as their main platform to create or promote their content anymore. And why would they?

People barely activate their notifications for blog updates, It’s hella hard to find an audience through the constant reblogging of already popular stuff From Vine and Twitter, people rarely go outside of tumblr to support peoples stores or websites. Hell most artist on here that become popular on here that get continued support are the ones that have made or continue to make some kind of pornography of real or fictional characters. It’s hella rare to find any artist that hasn’t made any porn, that is equally popular or supported like the ones that have; which just goes back to people thinking Tumblr is for porn.

Tumblr isn’t even against the idea of expressing yourself or art through nudity as their post and policy change explicitly explained. And people’s content that’s getting flagged that doesn’t go against that policy is a problem THAT THEY SAID WOULD HAPPEN as they get everything in order with their new system

All of these long post that people are writing about it that and they themselves forgot to do some basic reading on the topic. 

Tumblr Staff- “Certain types of artistic, educational, newsworthy, or political content featuring nudity are fine. Don’t upload any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, that depicts sex acts.

This isn’t an attack on people’s ability to speak out or embrace themselves. They are directly trying to remove Porn which they won’t be able to fully do, even Instagram and Twitter can’t do that; no public site with millions of people can. But they’re at least trying to get rid of the constant overflow of it. 

It’s so sad to see hundreds and thousands of you saying “i only used Tumblr for porn” because that just shows how derailed this site has become and why Tumblr had to make these extreme decisions especially after being removed from app stores because of the child pornography.

If you’re going to leave because you can’t make porn on here: I can see why you would do that but there is no reason to. You can still use your blog to promote your stuff and make teases of your work that can be found or bought else where. Tumblr was never a reliable place for sex work and i highly recommend using Sites that will actually protect your work and put some money in your pockets while doing it

If you’re leaving because you can’t watch porn on here: You probably weren’t supporting anyone really and only made the influx of porn worse, making it harder for other content users to be seen. If you were supporting actual sex workers on here then continue to do so, I’m sure anyone serious would have more than just tumblr as their main platform.

For those that got popular and made money off other people sex work: So long and farewell

For the Child Porn Blogs: Hope you get mental help or burn. Either or is fine with me

For the people that may get upset by this: Correct me, Prove me wrong, Let’s have a whole serious discussion about this and hear each others side with no fighting or disrespect :D 

For all of Us: Lets actually support and help the people that really make Tumblr the gem that it is. Lets make this platform be known for creative people and unique ideas; and communities that actually comfort and understand us. Let’s actually make this platform something that’s known for more than just Porn and Emo Kids.

Regardless i hope that everyone can calm down and act like there’s more here than just porn..

[hydrus]

Version 318

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. I caught up on more small stuff and put some more work into the new gallery downloaders.

downloaders

Unfortunately, tumblr decided to kill their 'raw' url access this week. There is not a lot of firm word from tumblr on the issue, but there is some scattered conversation around, and it seems it is dead and not to return. Whatever the ultimate reason for this, it broke our tumblr downloader, so v318 has an updated tumblr parser to fetch the 1280px versions of urls. I have also taken the opportunity to switch the tumblr 'gallery' parser over to the new system, so the tumblr downloader now fetches and associates neater 'post urls' for its file import objects rather than raw file urls and adds 'creator' tags. However, because of the URL changes, your tumblr subscriptions will hence hit their 'periodic' file limits and likely redownload some 1280px versions of files you already have in raw--if this affects you heavily, you might want to pause your tumblr subs before you update and carefully experiment and curate what happens after you are working again in v318. Note that some artists (like lmsketch) attach a lot of images to their posts, so if your periodic limit were 100--and that 100 now means 'posts' instead of file urls--you are potentially talking a lot of files that are going to be redownloaded! Again, I recommend heavy tumblr subscribers pause before update and maybe consider recreating their tumblr subs from scratch with an initial file limit of 10 or so.

The multi-gallery download page has some more improvements this week. I've fixed an issue where the sub-downloaders on the same page were unintentionally all sharing some bandwidth rules with each other. Multi-galleries also now have an 'added' column. And the 'pause' ⏸ and 'stop' ⏹ characters used in the lists on the multi- pages are now editable, also under options->downloading, for those who have trouble viewing this unicode.

I have also made the 'only get a gallery page every x seconds' option global to the whole program (it was previously per-downloader). Being able to create twenty new whateverbooru queries at once with a single click of the paste button is powerful and great, but it also meant spamming servers with many heavy gallery requests all at once, so now all downloaders share the same slot that comes up every x seconds. The delay option is under options->downloading. I recommend 15s for downloaders and 5s for subscriptions. Let's see how 'global' works, and if it is an annoying bottleneck, I will see about making it per-domain.

Subscriptions now auto-compact whenever they sync. This means they delete old fully processed URLs they no longer need to calculate file velocity just to keep them running snappy. You shouldn't notice any change except maybe a faster-loading 'manage subscriptions' dialog.

A couple of unusual data problems meant that xbooru and gelbooru were not searching well in the new system. I have fixed these, so if you got affected by this, please rerun your queries and let me know if you still have any problems. I also added gallery parsers for rule34.paheal and mishimmie (the paheal update should finally fix the 'paheal gets gallery urls in file results' issue!). Advanced users might like to refer to the gelbooru situation (and tumblr and artstation api gallery url classes) to look at url classes's new 'next gallery page' component, which lets you define an easy logical way to predict the next gallery page from a recognised gallery url and now acts as a fallback if the gallery parser cannot find one (as is usually the case with api results!).

full list

downloaders:

extended url classes to support 'next gallery page' generation--a fallback that predicts next gallery page url if the parser cannot provide it (as is often the case with APIs and unreliable next-page-url galleries such as gelbooru)

integrated this new next page generation into new gallery processing pipeline

updated gelbooru, tumblr api and artstation gallery api url classes to support the new next gallery page business

fixed the url class for xbooru, which wasn't recognising gallery urls correctly

wrote new gallery parsers for rule34.paheal and mishimmie (which are both shimmie but have slightly different gallery layout). this should finally solve the 'one paheal gallery url is being parsed into the file list per page' problem

'fixed' the tumblr parser to fetch the 1280px url (tumblr killed the raw url trick this past week)

misc text/status fixes

wrote a gallery parser for tumblr that fetches the actual tumblr post urls and hence uses the new tumblr post parser naturally! (tumblr post urls are now more neatly associated as 'known urls' on files!)

note that as the tumblr downloader now produces different kinds of urls, your tumblr subs will hit your periodic limits the next time they run. they will also re-download any 1280px files that are different to the previously fetched raws due to the above raw change (protip: keep your subscription periodic file limits low)

cut the 'periodic limit' subscription warning popup down to a much simpler statement and moved the accompanying help to a new help button on the edit sub panel

multi-gallery pages now have an 'added' column like multi-watchers

the new 'pause' ⏸ and 'stop' ⏹ characters shown in the multi-downloader pages are now customisable under options->downloading (some users had trouble with the unicode)

the watcher now shows the 'stop character' if checking is 404/DEAD

fixed an issue where the new gallery imports on the same multi-page were all sharing the same identifier for their ephemeral 'downloader instance' bandwidth tracker, which meant they were all sharing the same '100rqs per 5mins' etc... rules

the page and subscription downloader 'gallery page delay' is now program-wide (since both these things can run in mass parallel). let's see how it goes, maybe we'll move it to per-site

subscription queries now auto-compact on sync! this means that surplus old urls will be removed from their caches, keeping the whole object lean and quick to load/save

gallery logs now also compact! they will remove anything older than twice the current death velocity, but always keep the newest 25 regardless of age

.

misc:

the top-right hover window will now always appear--previously, it would only pop up if the client had some ratings services, but this window now handles urls

harmonised 'known urls' view/copy menu to a single code location and added sorted url class labels to entries (which should reduce direct-file-url misclicks)

greatly sped up manage tags dialogs initial calculation of possible actions on a tag alteration event, particularly when the dialog holds 10k+ tags

greatly sped up the second half of this process, when the action choice is applied to the manage tag dialog's current media list

the buttons on the manage tags dialog action popup dialog will now only show a max of 25 rows on their tooltips

some larger->smaller selection events on large pages with many tags should be significantly faster

subscription popups should now 'blank' their network job controls when not working (rather than leaving them on the old job, and without flickery-ly removing the job control completely)

the file cache and gallery log summary controls now have ... ellipsized texts to reduce their max width

fixed an issue where larger 'overriding bandwidth' status wait times would sometimes show instead of legit regular smaller bandwidth wait times

removed a now-superfluous layer of buffering in the thumbnail grid drawing pipeline--it seems to have removed some slight lag/flicker

I may have fixed the issue where a handful of thumbs will sometimes remain undrawn after several fast scrolling events

gave the some-linux-flavours infinitely-expanding popup message problem another pass. there _should_ be an explicit reasonable max width on the thing now

added a 'html5lib not found!' notification to the network->downloaders menu if this library is missing (mostly for users running from source)

help->about now states if lz4 is present

gave 'running from source' help page another pass, including info on running a virtual environment

in file lookup scripts, the full file content now supports string transformations--if this is set to occur, the file will be sent as an addition POST parameter and the content-type set to 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'. this is a temp fix to see if we can get whatanime.ga working, and may see some more work

if the free space on the db dir partition is < 500MB, the program will not boot

if the free space on the db dir partition is < 1GB, the client will not sync repositories

on boot the client can now attempt to auto-heal a missing local_hashes table. it will give an appropriate error message

misc post-importing-cleanup refactoring

next week

I still have a few more small things I want to catch up on, but it isn't so urgent now, so I'd like to get started on the new 'searcher' object, which will be the final component of the downloader overhaul (it will convert the initial 'samus_aran' search phrase into an initialised search url). I feel good about it and may have some test ui for advanced users to play with by v319.

[alilybit]

Steam Scam Documentation

improved readability + table of contents on my website: https://phal.io/hackers/stean (free easter egg included!)

——————————————————————————————

TLDR – What To Do

Prevention

- Never sign in using Steam anywhere unless it’s a well known site that you navigated to yourself, preferably by manually typing the URL into your browser and saving that URL as a bookmark for later, NEVER sign in on links others sent you, even your significant other whom you would trust with your life because their account could be hijacked or they don’t know they’re sharing a malicious link

- Optionally send the link to an internationally approved computer expert you trust (me?)

- When you confirm trades in the app, always double check both trade contents AND the person you’re trading with (level, friend date) because hackers can automatically replace outgoing and incoming trade offers to go to a different account with the same name and pfp as your original trade partner

When It’s Too Late

- Warn your friends not to click on any link that might be sent on your behalf, check active chats for messages you didn’t send, send/tell them this

- Change your password (if you use your Steam password elsewhere, change those as well, you should be using unique passwords and a secure open source password manager like KeePassXC)

- Log out all sessions in the Steam desktop client by clicking on your name in the top right corner next to notifications and navigating to account details -> account security - manage Steam guard -> deauthorize all other devices

- Open https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey in your browser (if you don’t trust my link, which you shouldn’t, simply find out if steamcommunity dot com is the real domain for Steam and then manually type the complete link into your browser), revoke any API key there is if you haven’t created them or don’t know what they are, if you did make them replace them

- Optionally report the link at https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en to make all common web browsers display a warning before loading the malicious site

(Source + further info: https://forums.steamrep.com/pages/hijacking/)

When a Friend Sends You a Malicious Link or Acts Suspiciously

- Try to contact them somewhere outside of Steam and send/tell them this to save their account and to prevent the hijack from spreading further through their friends list

- Warn their friends

Pro Tip

The interwebs are full of malicious links/downloads, even/especially search engine results. To make sure you get the proper installer for programmes/the proper link to log into/purchase something, ALWAYS use the Wikipedia Technique™:

- Open wikipedia.org

- Search for the programme/site/shop/whatever

- Look for the website link either on the right in the summary box or by navigating to the external links section at the bottom

——————————————————————————————

I will now describe and show how a friend of mine had their account hijacked. I’ll also keep adding other forms of scam attempts to this post/site as I come across them so you can look at examples and be prepared for when it happens to you.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 1 – Can You Vote for My Team?

It was the night before my first vaccination. I was still doing something on my PC, I don’t remember what, even though it was past bedtime, when I got a message from a Steam friend. I’ll call them Ingeborg. My brother, Ingeborg and I had met a month earlier on a TF2 rocket jump server and we added each other. We played together a couple more times but beside that I didn’t know Ingeborg that well. You can see the chat from that day in the images below.

The first cropped message from Ingeborg at the top is “hey u free rn?” or something. I assumed they just wanted to ask about playing a game of TF2 with me, as it has happened before. When they dropped the question about voting for their team and getting keys in return, I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know of any competitive team they were in and I also didn’t know Ingeborg well or that alleged tournament at all. It also didn’t seem like they could just throw expensive keys around. I took some time to process the information and to think about what I should reply, but Ingeborg didn’t leave me much time to think, following up with “?” and “u here”. So I asked, feeling stupid for not knowing what they’re talking about.

Then, they also set a time limit of less than 30 minutes and kept asking why I’m not immediately replying or “voting”. I have to admit, I nearly fell for it. I want to help people and I can’t think clearly under pressure, especially when it involves other people. And, for the Permanent Record, I of course wouldn’t have taken anything in return for helping a friend. I wanted to tell them that but they didn’t even give me the time to type that. I had already put my name and password in the form, after a lot of thinking, but something prevented me from pressing enter, it just didn’t feel right. I had even briefly searched the web for that tournament and didn’t really find anything. But what finally made me realise that there is something wrong and what made me think clearly again was the border and title bar of that alleged pop-up window. (Edit: Thanks for 1 likes. I compared genuinely signing in through Steam on scrap.tf and it did not open a pop-up window, it simply completely sent me to steamcommunity.com. I guess that means pop-up Steam sign ins are always fake.) I already tried clicking on the HTTPS information earlier which didn’t work for some reason but which still didn’t make me 100 % realise that this is a fake site. Until I noticed that the title bar is a Windows 10 default light theme title bar. I’m on Linux and I use dark themes, the title bar should look completely different. I tried moving the window around and it moved choppily and I could only move it within the Firefox window. I checked the source code and it was true: It was merely an iframe within the site that contained a fake Steam login form from a different URL that’s not steamcommunity.com. This is the site in the iframe:

As you can see, it’s the Steam login form, but the address at the top is not a Steam address. I took a look at its source code and found that it was a lot longer than the original and also contained a lot of dialogue lines about removing the Steam mobile authenticator. This apparently didn’t come up when actually putting in password and username, but you should look out for fake sites telling you to remove your authenticator, they could get complete access to your account that way.

I confronted Ingeborg with this and they stopped replying. But they didn’t immediately remove me from their friends list, like that one time I was actually scammed. I wasn’t sure what to do now. Was Ingeborg really a scammer? Was everything we did together so far just to gain my trust to scam me? Like that one time I was actually scammed? The funny thing is that out conversation before this was about scammers. Some usual random scammer put a usual comment on my profile and Ingeborg warned me. But I believe in the good in everyone and I didn’t want to just assume they were a scammer without making absolutely sure. I thought about what else I knew about Ingeborg. They gifted my brother some items because he barely has any. They invited me to their Steam group. They subscribed to me on YouTube and put my channel on their home tab. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, I also took some time to take a look at their YouTube channel and subscribed. So I thought that me subscribing to them was the sign they were waiting for, signalling that I trusted them enough to fall for the scam. I checked their channel and I was still on their home tab and subscriptions. I checked their Steam group and was still a member. This convinced me that there really is a possibility that this wasn’t actually Ingeborg trying to scam be but that they’ve also been phished and someone else is now trying to also gain access to their friends’s’s accounts.

Ingeborg’s friends list and profile comments were now set to private, so I couldn’t comment or directly message their friends to warn them. But there was the Steam group. One other member was online, one with a Pokémon profile picture and I believe I also remembered noticing them on Ingeborg’s friends list because of the Pokémon theme. So I put a comment in the group and added the Pokémon person, who unfortunately had their comments disabled as well, so I put an explanatory message into my profile to let them know why I’m adding them. I warned them and asked them to tell Ingeborg that someone has access to their account, should they know Ingeborg better than me. On YouTube, Ingeborg had their Discord name listed. I tried to add them but friend requests were disabled. There was also an Instagram name. I technically don’t have Instagram but I made a test account a while ago to test a YouTube scam comment with a link to an alleged Instagram password hacking site. I logged in with that account, changed my profile picture to my real one, added an explanation to the bio and added Ingeborg. But they didn’t react. So I wrote a comment on a YouTube video. I think it took three attempts for the comment to pass the automatic spam filter. It could of course also have been Ingeborg deleting my comments exposing them for being a scammer. But the third castle stayed up. And a while later, they actually responded. I then tried to tell them to add me on Discord, that also took many attempts and extremely careful wording to get through. Not even my Discord tag with numbers spelled out and 1447 speak, as Jeremy 900 800 500 would say, went through, but a carefully camouflaged link to my website did. By then, they also messaged me on Steam, asking for help and asking me to temporarily take their valuable items to secure them. I told them to add me on Discord so I know it’s actually them I’m chatting with. As it turned out later, it was really good that they didn’t trade me their stuff.

Apparently, Ingeborg wasn’t home at the time and only had access to their phone. And they allegedly fell for the exact same scam a day before. The obvious first thing that had to be done was changing the Steam password. But it seems that the password can’t be changed in the app itself. So I had the idea that Ingeborg could log into Steam on their phone’s web browser and change the password there, which worked. We kept chatting and I kept researching. I still wasn’t sure if this was still part of Ingeborg’s ingenious plan to regain my trust to scam me again, but I believed in them. Eventually Ingeborg got home, and I stayed awake gladly until 3:47 in the morning, I… I sang as time went off. Because as long as menly men like me are prepared to give their time, a flower grows. And that flower, that small, fragile, delicate yellow flower, shall burst forth and defeat interwebs criminals. On the “next” day, the vaccine had a side effect of making me a little tired. Strangely enough, that side effect already started before the injection itself.

I also kept thinking about what the actual purpose of this series of hijacking accounts is. Ingeborg’s Steam wallet and inventory seemed to have been untouched but there must be some way for the criminals to profit off of this, if only to pay for the costs of the website and domain. On Vaccinator day, I finally found an article on https://forums.steamrep.com/pages/hijacking/ that explains it. When you give them your password and current authenticator code, they obviously get access to your account, but you still have the authenticator, so what they can do is limited. Apparently, they use the opportunity to create an API key that allows them to keep accessing your account even after you changed your password and they use it to immediately replace incoming and outgoing trade offers with ones that go to a fake version of your original trade partner with the same name and profile picture. You might then not notice the difference when confirming the trade in the app and give them your items, unknowingly and without them having to have access to or remove your mobile authenticator. A brilliant idea. You might as well check if you have any API keys which you usually shouldn’t, the details are explained on the steamrep link and in the “when it’s too late” section at the top of this piece of medium literature.

And the moral of this story: Always be careful, educate yourself on how they trick you and on digital security in the sense of safety, never assume you won’t fall for it, don’t shame people who fell for it and don’t feel ashamed if you fell for it. And always have an internationally approved technical support character on your team.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 2 – Simply Building Trust AKA Social Engineer

We write the distant year of 2016. Two… œ… six… one. Oh, I’m an idiot, I held the pen upside down. Never mind. I don’t recall the incident in as many details, but I still know the most important things. It started on a TF2 tdm_hightower community server, rocket jumping and Market Gardenering around. I don’t remember exactly how one of the other players started conversing with me, I just remember that they, I’ll call them Wincohn, added me, chatted with me and wanted to trade one of my items that was not yet tradable. We chatted over the course of multiple days. Eventually, we also chatted about bad things that happened in our pasts, like the divorce of my parents and how their dad allegedly died when they were young. And we comforted each other. They also asked me if I was religious at some point, I guess because religious people are easier to scam. When I took a look at their inventory, I saw TF2 competitive matchmaking beta passes. I don’t remember exactly how that worked, but I was excited about matchmaking and you could only get in if you have the beta pass item, but having it also gives you some invites to give to other people. So I offered to take a beta invite in exchange for the item they wanted. My item, a festive Rocket Launcher was still not tradable though, so they offered me to temporarily give them something else and they would immediately give me a beta invite. Since the beta invite is not an item, I had to trust them they would actually invite me in return. We were on the aforementioned community server again and they agreed to make our trade public to the server members so they could witness it and report one of us, should we not keep our side of the bargain. So we opened a trade and I gave them one cosmetic drop I didn’t need, one cosmetic I used and two non-strange festive weapons so I don’t lose my stats, which were apparently in total about equal in value to the Rocket Launcher. Right before the trade went through, they left the server, which I only noticed when the trade window closed. And they removed me from their friends list. No beta invite. I told the others on the server that we traded but he left before it went through and he scammed me but nobody cared. The chat where we agreed that I would get a beta invite was also gone. I lost my items and I didn’t even have proof that it was a scam and not just a gift or tax dodge. Steam rightfully doesn’t return scammed items, because the scammers of course immediately sell them and taking them away from the buyer would be unfair for them and giving the victim a duplicate would be easily exploitable, but getting them banned would at least prevent further scams. The worst part, though, is that everything they told me was a lie and only served the purpose of gaining my trust. Fascinating.

After it happened, I was of course sad and angry. But only temporarily. I don’t hold a grudge against them, I’ve long since forgiven them. Quite on the contrary, I’m even thankful because I didn’t lose that much virtual material value (like 3 $) and it was a valuable experience. I only hope that they have changed since then and don’t do this anymore. The comments on their profile are disabled to this day, not the best sign. They also don’t have a Steam or third party ban. Either them scamming was not a common occurrence or nobody was ever able to prove it.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 3 – Wanna Join Our Tournament Team? (Incomplete)

I got another one of those friend requests on Steam from a suspicious looking profile. One of those that have TF2 comp stuff in their profile description. This time, I accepted it to see what they would do, to document more methods used by interwebs criminals.

This account had 1200 hours of TF2 playtime. So it looked like they’re an actual player, or maybe a hijacked account. Their inventory was public as well, but nearly empty, not even regular weapons or anything. They were playing TF2 the entire time and when I checked the server they were on, it always said no server. I guess that means they just have TF2 open the entire time to farm playtime that is publicly and prominently displayed on their profile to appear like a real player.

I tried to go along with their chat but it didn’t go well. I even prepared my long unused Gibus Cap Discord account that I used to use to test roles on our server. But apparently, I asked too many questions. I was too eager to get a nice phishing link into my net. After that last message, they removed me from their friends. Next time, I won’t ask questions.

[mojput-mypath]

Social Media Addiction Anxiety

Have you noticed that feeling of a slight “down” when your social media post doesn’t work as well as another that was somewhat a hit? The silly little thoughts coming up saying – maybe I should have taken a better shot angle, or put my hair more to the side? Have you? Have you noticed going through your day with having a constant little reminder at the back of your mind – oh, would this be a good picture? Would this make an interesting story? And missing out on REALITY on the way?

I've been having this nagging feeling, a subtle guilt-trip from inside, for some time now. Then I noticed the guilt is becoming more, and suppressing it was harder. So, I did the obvious thing – I blamed others for what I felt was my own problem. I started noticing that it is not only me spending endless minutes combined together into hours and days of LIFE on social media; even my partner, who is somewhat ignoring his phone a lot of the time, I noticed, is spending time in front of screens for nothing in particular. And me – well, it’s my job, isn’t it? I have an excuse.

Then I watched a film. A film that told me everything I felt was true and WORSE. ("Social Media Dilemma")

I knew the film would just confirm my ideas, but it did more, it revealed the harder truth. I heard something about privacy in the last years and once, some time ago, removed myself completely from an online service, and then came back to it, ignoring the knowledge I had about these services. Since then, I have been putting a lot of effort into making myself resist all the hooks of the virtual world. But, I do have an addictive personality. It's just fact. I had to and have to be extra careful.

So, to put my heart at ease, I did a lot of “cleaning” of the feeds/emails/messages I received, and kept removing content that I found disturbing, repetitive or irrelevant. I kept blocking “spammers” (those lovely people that just feel like sharing everything they see online and assume it would be interesting for you too). I added the screen time app to see how much time I spent on screen. I ignored the evil numbers looking at me, saying I do spend too much time on screen. I also started using a service to tell me it’s too late in the evening or too early in the morning to look at the screen. I even used the app limit, for watching TV more than 2 hours. Somehow, I turned all these reminders telling me I’m spending too much time on screen - off.

I started noticing that I also like to take the phone to the toilet. I wanted not to take it, but I kept going back, half way down the hall, for it. I felt ashamed, but I ignored that too.

One of the things that made me really begin to make a change was the behaviour of my step-daughter after we let her use our phones for a bit. After half an hour/one hour on the phone she was restless, annoyed at us, and refused to do anything creative, refused to spend time in nature and refused everything else for that matter. The cause-of-grumpiness pattern was obvious.

Then I started to leave my phone at home when we were going out, just to “get rid of it”, because I knew if I took it - I would keep staring at it – in the lift, in the car, searching for something “important” while in the shop, checking a map to see where we should be going…

The statistics (and I really like statistics) told me I had around 10 hours of screen time PER DAY. 68 hours in the last 7 days. That I get around 700-900 notification PER DAY on only one chat service. That I pick up my phone on an average of a 100 times per day!

And I thought getting grumpy for nothing was strange. Why on earth am I grumpy most of the time? Surely not because my nose is stuck in online content?

Three things that were confirmed by the film, struck me like lightning. One: the services are designed for you to keep checking them. In spite of me turning off message counts and notifications for most services I use, the one or two I was using, kept coming ALL THE TIME. I also realised I keep checking work messages at 11 at night, at 5 in the morning. Just to see “what is going on online”. The answer is simple: NOTHING. Only time-wasting is happening online. MOSTLY. 99% of the time. We are not machines that can process all this data! Our brains are limited. We are impressionable.

I noticed also the creepy commercials that I felt at times are READING MY MIND. I ignored even that, because I liked the products. Here we come to number two: The services keep showing me nice things, things I like, things I need. Things that make me feel SAFE and COMFORTABLE. And I want to feel safe and comfortable, also feeling I am in control of what I am seeing, by blocking everything that does not feel safe and comfortable. Like, for example, in the world – things are not always safe and comfortable, and it is nicer in the phone world than out THERE (where the TRUTH is). I feel a little like a conspiracy theorist writing every other word in CAPITALS. Even conspiracy theories, I heard, are a product of evil reptile control, making us put the truth in a make-believe context, so the actual truth can be hidden by turning facts into mockery, making the truth into something designed by delusional people.

We’re all sitting out there, with our heads in screens, ignoring life itself, but living in our own little safe virtual worlds, which AI algorithms have created for us – based on GAZILLIONS OF DATA sources, freely given by ourselves, that are taking note of our subconscious behaviour.

And three: once the man-made “algorithms” are set loose in the virtual systems – no one can predict how they will mutate in human hands (riots, hate acts etc.). Also, the social media reptiles can FINE TUNE or completely MODIFY real-life social conduct. The film said so! It said that by tweaking the currents of human subconscious acts, societies can shift their preferences, ways of thinking and ultimately behaviour. As fast as pressing a button!!!

We don’t have to wait for the MATRIX/1984 futures to arrive – THEY ARE HERE.

I am now figuring out a way to stay connected to the work I am doing online, how to make use of the services and make money on others being gullible. Also hoping that the services we provide are healthy for people. Double standards! But, as my dad always said: we live in society, not in the forest. If you want to live with wolves – go ahead, bye.

What I did for my digital detox:

1. TURNED OFF ALL badges, message counts, notifications on phone & computer 2. Replaced my browser and search engine with ‘safe’ ones that do not collect your browsing data 3. Logged out of all services, actually I did a reset of privacy data on my phone and turned off location services and denied mic & camera access for 97% of apps   4. Deleted all except one social media app (work reasons again) 5. Stopped using Facebook for news and communication and kept it only for work, which I intend to reduce more 6. Deleted my personal Instagram account 7. Kept 2 services for work communication

What I still want to do: 1. Transfer my email account to another server, with better encryption policies 2. Get online storage that has better security 3. Stop using google/facebook services for logging in for everything.

If there are any suggestions you would like to share with me, I am not available on social media :D I'll set up a point of contact that I feel comfortable with soon and will let you know here on the blog.

Also, you might have my number, call me. We can have a real-life chat.

[signalfanclub]

Locking down Signal Concerned about the privacy and security of your communications? Follow our guide to locking down Signal.

The encrypted messaging app, Signal, is quickly becoming a newsroom staple for communicating with sources, accepting tips, talking to colleagues, and for regular old voice calls and messages. While it’s a practical tool for anyone concerned with the security and privacy of their conversations, people working in newsrooms are particularly interesting targets, and should benefit from locking down Signal.

(If you’re not yet using it, learn how to get started here.)

Signal makes it easy to have a secure conversation without thinking about it. On its face, it looks and feels identical to your default text messaging app, but security experts so often recommend it because of what it does in the background.

First, Signal offers end-to-end encryption, meaning only conversational participants can read the messages. While regular phone calls or text messages allow your phone company to unscramble your conversations, even the team behind Signal can’t listen to them. You don’t need to take their word for it. Signal is open source, meaning the code is available for anyone to review. This also makes security audits simpler for independent specialists, who have torn apart the code and published findings that everything works as intended. Finally, Signal retains nearly no metadata — information about who spoke to whom, and when. (The developers proved as much in court.)

These are some of the advantages you want in an encrypted messaging app.

Because newsrooms can attract a lot of attention, journalists who already use Signal should consider hardening it against physical access, as well as unwanted remote access and network-based eavesdropping. So let’s talk about how.

Remote access and network eavesdropping

Confirm your connection security with safety numbers

Most messaging apps will not allow you to ensure the security of your connection with your conversational partners. But Signal allows you to verify that your session is encrypted to the right person (and not an eavesdropping third party).

First, open up a conversation with someone you want to talk to. Next, look for their “safety numbers.” These numbers represent the connection between your device and your conversational partner’s device.

iPhone users: Click your partner’s name (at the top of the screen) > View Safety Number Android users: Click Settings (the “three-dot” menu) > Conversation settings > Verify safety numbers

You’ll see a your safety numbers and a QR code, representing the numbers.

If you and your conversational partner see the same numbers, your session is secure. You should verify your safety numbers over a different channel where you feel confident you’re talking to the right person, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Google Hangouts. If possible, exchange safety numbers in person.

If you and your contact are together in person, one of you can click “Scan code” on the safety number screen. Now, scan the other person’s QR code with your camera.

If you see a mismatch, something is definitely wrong and you shouldn’t talk over this channel. But chances are, your safety numbers will match. If everything looks good, mark your partner as “Verified.”

You won’t need to verify safety numbers again until someone resets the session. For example, when you begin using Signal from a new phone, you will get new safety numbers.

You’ll receive a notification if your safety numbers with a partner have changed. If this happens, use another channel to verify that the session is secured before you continue communicating sensitive information.

Using secondary Signal numbers

Signal treats your phone number like a “username.” But what if you don’t want to share your phone number? Journalists often want to use Signal to chat with sources, but may not want to use a personal phone number.

The good news: as long as no one else has registered it, we can register Signal with any phone number we have access to.

For those in the United States, the easiest way to set up a secondary number is with Google Voice. (Your Signal messages go over Signal servers, not Google servers.) First, go to voice.google.com and log in with a Google account.

Signal registration message received in Google Voice. Source: OpenNews

From here, add a phone number you can use for verification. You’ll receive a text message with a verification code. Enter your verification code into Google Voice to complete your registration.

Now, register on Signal using this new phone number. You will receive a Signal registration code in your new Google Voice inbox.

In most countries you can use a secondary SIM card to create another number. Read this post by Jillian York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to learn more. You can also use an online service called Twilio to create a number for as little as $1 each month. Learn how here.

Registration lock

Whether it’s your regular phone number or a secondary number, you’ll need to maintain access to this number. Why? If you lose access to the number and someone else re-registers it, now they own the Signal number.

You can lock in the registration for you Signal number, using Registration Lock.

iPhone users: Click Settings > Privacy > Registration Lock > Enabled Android users: Click Settings > Privacy > Registration Lock > Enabled

Enter your preferred PIN. This PIN will prevent your number from being re-registered from a different device, so write it down or keep it somewhere safe. This might be a physically hidden notebook, or password management software. Signal will occasionally nudge you with a prompt to re-enter your PIN to ensure you still remember it.

iOS users: Keep your Signal history off iCloud

Signal allows you to see your call history from your regular phone app. This might be convenient, but will also allow your iPhone to sync this call history with iCloud, including who spoke to whom, when, and the call length.

If you use iCloud and you don’t want to share call history on Signal, confirm it’s turned off here: Settings > Privacy > Show Calls in Recents > Disabled.

Why you want disappearing messages

While Signal lets you delete individual messages, these messages will only be deleted on your device, and are still accessible by anyone else in your conversation. Instead, using Signal’s “disappearing messages” feature allows us to remove messages from a conversation automatically, after whatever amount of time we choose. This is particularly important for journalists concerned about messages on a source’s phone.

To turn on disappearing messages, first open a conversation.

iPhone users: Click on your partner's name at the top of the screen to open the settings menu for this conversation. Click "Disappearing Messages."

Android users: Click the settings (three-dot) icon in the top right corner. Click "Disappearing Messages."

Move the slider to set the amount of time you'd like to keep the messages, between five seconds to one week. This works both for one-on-one conversations and group chats.

Device security

The weak points in end-to-end encrypted conversations are the “ends”— the physical devices where the messages arrive in human-readable text.

There are a few things we can do to lock down our devices.

Password protect your device

Encryption won’t help with someone who gets access to your unlocked phone, so you’ll want to password protect your device. Exit Signal and turn on a passcode.

iPhone users: Settings app > Touch ID & Passcode Android users: Settings app > Security > Screen lock

Consider turning on screen security

Unlocking your phone also means decrypting your messages. You can require one additional step to re-enter your password (or method of choice) before unlocking Signal.

Why might you want to do this?

It doesn’t happen every day, but unlocked phones are stolen in plain sight — while walking down the street, or on the train. Likewise, maybe you allow your son or daughter to entertain themselves on your phone, but you don’t want them to see the bizarre photos from your source.

iPhone users: Click Settings > Privacy > Screen Lock Android users: Click Settings > Privacy > Screen Lock

Note that this wouldn’t be very helpful in a situation where someone compelled you to unlock your device once (e.g., at an airport). If they can have you enter your password at the operating system lock screen, there’s nothing to stop them from asking for it a second time at the Signal lock screen.

Turn on disk encryption

If your phone is ever lost, stolen, or seized, it’s possible to copy and read any data on the device, including your encrypted messages. The good news: You can easily protect your device with disk encryption.

If you use a modern iPhone, congratulations! Your device is already encrypted.

Many modern Android devices are encrypted by default (e.g., Pixel devices, some phones in the Nexus and Samsung Galaxy lines). Check your Android system settings for disk encryption to make sure disk encryption is enabled. If not, setting up disk encryption is easy.

Screen security

Seeing a preview of an app in your app switcher is convenient, but if someone were standing over your shoulder, they’d be able to see your messages just fine. Signal gives you options to prevent a preview from being shown, unless you explicitly open the app.

iPhone users: Click Settings > Privacy > Screen Security Android users: Click Settings > Privacy > Screen Security

Notification privacy

Even when your phone is locked with a password, anyone who picks it up can still read the message and sender name from your lock screen.

iPhone users: Settings > Notifications > Show. To receive notifications with no information about the sender or the content of your messages, turn on “No Name or Content.”

Android users: Settings > Device > Sound & notification > When device is locked. To receive notifications with no information about the sender or content, click “Hide sensitive information content.”

Updates and defending against malware

We can’t be sure our messages are safe if your device or your partner’s device has malware. For example, many types of malware are designed to send screenshots of your messages, or recordings of conversations to a remote hacker. The single best thing you can do is stay on top of your software updates. Software updates usually include security patches for holes in your software, both for your operating system, Signal, and any other apps you have on your phone.

The temptation to delay security updates is real, but updates are among the most powerful defenses we have. We can make it much harder for an attacker to break in by simply updating as soon as possible.

Safest choice: Only use your mobile device

As we think about how to defend against malware and keep our devices updated, it’s important to understand where we choose to put our Signal messages. Signal offers a desktop application, but it’s safer to keep your messages only on your mobile device.

While your desktop device typically allows applications to talk to one another, ordinary Android or iOS devices deliberately isolate apps. These mobile operating systems require strict permissions for the data apps can access, and when. Compared to a desktop machine, this means malicious apps have a significantly more difficult time compromising your data on an updated mobile device.

Know the limits of end-to-end encryption

Now that you’ve locked down your device, it’s important to know that Signal is closely tied to your device and no one else’s. This is generally a good thing; you don’t want other people to be able to easily recover your Signal number or messages. But if you lose your device or purchase a new one, this might create short-term problems.

For example, only using Signal on your mobile device is a security win, but means you really need to avoid losing the phone. Likewise, the “registration lock” feature prevents others from taking your Signal number, but it would also prevent you from being able to re-register your number.

One reason we like Signal is that it does not hold onto metadata—information about who spoke to whom, when, and for how long. But it’s also not designed to protect against live metadata surveillance, so it doesn’t protect your identity. Likewise, it can’t protect the identity of anyone else you talk to.

We’ve spoken about the many ways our messages can be compromised, and what you can do to be safer. But even if you’re practicing great security hygiene, if your conversational partner isn’t also being careful, they can put your messages at greater risk. Encourage others in need to lock down their Signal as well.

For news organizations looking for more hands-on assistance with encrypted messaging tools and practices, please contact us about our training options. If Signal is a service you value, consider donating to support their work.

[webbygraphic001]

7 Spring Cleaning Essentials for Web Designers

It’s the first day of Spring! As you look to clean up other parts of your life (e.g. your home, your refrigerator, your yard) make the cleanup of your web design business a priority as well.

If you’re anything like me, you set aside time later in the week or month, promising yourself that you’ll finally take care of “business stuff”. And if you’re also like me, you often have to postpone those business maintenance tasks because new paid work opportunities come in. (Or you’re just exhausted and want a break from looking at your screen.)

But there’s no time like the present, so if you can spare it, give yourself at least one day off from work to tackle this spring cleaning checklist. Not only will it give you time to zero in on the areas that often go neglected in your business, but you’ll come out of it feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.

1. Clean Your Workspace

There are some people that thrive in organized chaos. However, if your workspace is piled high with stuff you don’t need, stuff that distracts you, or stuff that’s literally getting in your way as you try to work on your computer, you need to clean your physical workspace.

When you’re done, think about doing something new for your workspace, something that makes you feel excited about sitting down to work. A new piece of artwork over your desk? A book about web design you’ve been meaning to read? A postcard from a client thanking you for a job well done? Then, put it somewhere that you’ll see it every day.

This is what I’ve done with my own workspace:

2. Declutter the Desktop

It doesn’t matter how many folders you put on your desktop to keep things organized. Image files, templates, PDFs, workflow documentation — these loose documents and folders sitting on your desktop are a distraction. Worse, if you don’t move them off of it, you’re putting your business at risk for data loss (if you’re not otherwise backing it all up).

To keep your desktop clutter-free, give your files and folders a new home — one that’s in a secure, cloud-based organizational system. Google Drive and Dropbox are free to start with and easy to use.

3. Review Your Folders

If you’re still storing files on your computer (and not just your desktop), now is the time to migrate them to your cloud storage. Then, once you have all files in a centralized location (which is also great for security and collaboration purposes), work on refining your folder structure:

Delete old client files and folders;

Delete old business documentation or update it so that it’s reflective of what you do now;

Check for files containing the same information. Remove the duplicates;

Review and rename folders for improved clarity and organization;

Review your bookmarks. Delete ones you don’t use. Update incorrect links. Organize links based on how frequently they’re used. And create a file structure to organize it all.

Here’s an example of what I’ve done to my own bookmarks bar to improve my workflow:

4. Check on the State of Your Website

You’re in the business of designing websites for others, but when was the last time you took care of your own?

Start with a site health check:

Is all of the software updated? If not, back your site up and run those updates now;

How about security, your security plugin should have a scanner, run it and make sure all is well;

Does the site load as quickly as it could? If you’re unsure, run it through PageSpeed Insights to see if Google suggests any fixes.

Then, check on the content of your website:

Hold old is the design, if it’s over a year old, it at least needs some upgrades;

How old is the information about your business, if anything has changed, take care of it now;

Is any of the content or images no longer relevant, remove them if that’s the case;

How about your links, do all internal links still work, do external links point to recent and relevant sources.

Finally, spend some time updating your portfolio. Even if it’s only been a few months, you may have new samples or testimonials to show off. Don’t let outdated website samples reflect poorly on what you can do.

5. Freshen up Your Social Presence

WebDesignerDepot recently published a post discussing all the ways social media might be hurting your design business. Run through the checklist to see if you can do any cleanup and salvage your social presence.

6. Create Less Email Work

One of the things you’ll learn if you read the 4-Hour Workweek is that email is a huge time waster. Sure, you need it to communicate with clients, but what percentage of emails in your inbox are actually from clients? And how many of those client emails are actually urgent enough to warrant your attention right now?

What you need to do is create a new system for your email so that it stops distracting you from work. Here are some ways to do that:

Unsubscribe from all unnecessary subscriptions;

Review and update your email folder structure to keep everything well-organized;

Use filters so that client emails immediately drop into their corresponding folders;

Use a tool like Boomerang for Gmail. It turns off email notifications on your phone and computer, so you can stay focused during the workday.

Another thing to look at is your email signature. Here’s an example of how mine currently looks (you can also see the Boomerang “Send Later” buttons in action):

If you had to update any of your business or contact information on your site, the same applies here. Now is also a good opportunity to add links that help keep prospects and clients connected — like social media links, your website link, or a meeting scheduler.

7. Review Software Subscriptions

Finally, take a look at your software subscriptions. Is there anything you’ve signed up for in the past that you’re no longer using? How about tools that used to work really well, but that seem to do nothing but slow you down now?

Automation is crucial for web designers. Just make sure you’re using tools that actually enhance your workflow.

WebDesignerDepot has a fantastic roundup of 30 tools and services that help with this. You obviously won’t need or want to use all of them. However, if you’re trying to figure out if that tool you use now is worth it, this is a great reference to confirm your suspicions or find an alternative option.

Spring Cleaning Bonus

Once you’ve finished spring cleaning your business, it’s time to get back to thinking about revenue generation.

So, why not create a spring cleaning service or promotional offer for clients? It shouldn’t even be that hard to do since you probably provided this service in the past, just under a different name: a website redesign.

Just reach out to clients you haven’t spoken to in a year or so, and pitch them a “Spring Cleaning” website audit and cleanup for a flat fee. You can also do the same with brand new clients whose websites are certainly in need of a good scrub.

  Featured image via Unsplash

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/2FrljGR from Blogger https://ift.tt/2TNY3eQ

[iyarpage]

7 Spring Cleaning Essentials for Web Designers

It’s the first day of Spring! As you look to clean up other parts of your life (e.g. your home, your refrigerator, your yard) make the cleanup of your web design business a priority as well.

If you’re anything like me, you set aside time later in the week or month, promising yourself that you’ll finally take care of “business stuff”. And if you’re also like me, you often have to postpone those business maintenance tasks because new paid work opportunities come in. (Or you’re just exhausted and want a break from looking at your screen.)

But there’s no time like the present, so if you can spare it, give yourself at least one day off from work to tackle this spring cleaning checklist. Not only will it give you time to zero in on the areas that often go neglected in your business, but you’ll come out of it feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.

1. Clean Your Workspace

There are some people that thrive in organized chaos. However, if your workspace is piled high with stuff you don’t need, stuff that distracts you, or stuff that’s literally getting in your way as you try to work on your computer, you need to clean your physical workspace.

When you’re done, think about doing something new for your workspace, something that makes you feel excited about sitting down to work. A new piece of artwork over your desk? A book about web design you’ve been meaning to read? A postcard from a client thanking you for a job well done? Then, put it somewhere that you’ll see it every day.

This is what I’ve done with my own workspace:

2. Declutter the Desktop

It doesn’t matter how many folders you put on your desktop to keep things organized. Image files, templates, PDFs, workflow documentation — these loose documents and folders sitting on your desktop are a distraction. Worse, if you don’t move them off of it, you’re putting your business at risk for data loss (if you’re not otherwise backing it all up).

To keep your desktop clutter-free, give your files and folders a new home — one that’s in a secure, cloud-based organizational system. Google Drive and Dropbox are free to start with and easy to use.

3. Review Your Folders

If you’re still storing files on your computer (and not just your desktop), now is the time to migrate them to your cloud storage. Then, once you have all files in a centralized location (which is also great for security and collaboration purposes), work on refining your folder structure:

Delete old client files and folders;

Delete old business documentation or update it so that it’s reflective of what you do now;

Check for files containing the same information. Remove the duplicates;

Review and rename folders for improved clarity and organization;

Review your bookmarks. Delete ones you don’t use. Update incorrect links. Organize links based on how frequently they’re used. And create a file structure to organize it all.

Here’s an example of what I’ve done to my own bookmarks bar to improve my workflow:

4. Check on the State of Your Website

You’re in the business of designing websites for others, but when was the last time you took care of your own?

Start with a site health check:

Is all of the software updated? If not, back your site up and run those updates now;

How about security, your security plugin should have a scanner, run it and make sure all is well;

Does the site load as quickly as it could? If you’re unsure, run it through PageSpeed Insights to see if Google suggests any fixes.

Then, check on the content of your website:

Hold old is the design, if it’s over a year old, it at least needs some upgrades;

How old is the information about your business, if anything has changed, take care of it now;

Is any of the content or images no longer relevant, remove them if that’s the case;

How about your links, do all internal links still work, do external links point to recent and relevant sources.

Finally, spend some time updating your portfolio. Even if it’s only been a few months, you may have new samples or testimonials to show off. Don’t let outdated website samples reflect poorly on what you can do.

5. Freshen up Your Social Presence

WebDesignerDepot recently published a post discussing all the ways social media might be hurting your design business. Run through the checklist to see if you can do any cleanup and salvage your social presence.

6. Create Less Email Work

One of the things you’ll learn if you read the 4-Hour Workweek is that email is a huge time waster. Sure, you need it to communicate with clients, but what percentage of emails in your inbox are actually from clients? And how many of those client emails are actually urgent enough to warrant your attention right now?

What you need to do is create a new system for your email so that it stops distracting you from work. Here are some ways to do that:

Unsubscribe from all unnecessary subscriptions;

Review and update your email folder structure to keep everything well-organized;

Use filters so that client emails immediately drop into their corresponding folders;

Use a tool like Boomerang for Gmail. It turns off email notifications on your phone and computer, so you can stay focused during the workday.

Another thing to look at is your email signature. Here’s an example of how mine currently looks (you can also see the Boomerang “Send Later” buttons in action):

If you had to update any of your business or contact information on your site, the same applies here. Now is also a good opportunity to add links that help keep prospects and clients connected — like social media links, your website link, or a meeting scheduler.

7. Review Software Subscriptions

Finally, take a look at your software subscriptions. Is there anything you’ve signed up for in the past that you’re no longer using? How about tools that used to work really well, but that seem to do nothing but slow you down now?

Automation is crucial for web designers. Just make sure you’re using tools that actually enhance your workflow.

WebDesignerDepot has a fantastic roundup of 30 tools and services that help with this. You obviously won’t need or want to use all of them. However, if you’re trying to figure out if that tool you use now is worth it, this is a great reference to confirm your suspicions or find an alternative option.

Spring Cleaning Bonus

Once you’ve finished spring cleaning your business, it’s time to get back to thinking about revenue generation.

So, why not create a spring cleaning service or promotional offer for clients? It shouldn’t even be that hard to do since you probably provided this service in the past, just under a different name: a website redesign.

Just reach out to clients you haven’t spoken to in a year or so, and pitch them a “Spring Cleaning” website audit and cleanup for a flat fee. You can also do the same with brand new clients whose websites are certainly in need of a good scrub.

  Featured image via Unsplash

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;} .alignleft {float:left;} p.showcase {clear:both;} body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;} 7 Spring Cleaning Essentials for Web Designers published first on https://medium.com/@koresol

[kodistuff]

How to Perform Fresh Start for Kodi with Factory Reset Option?

Kodi is the best plugin for watching your favorite movie or entertainment show on a laptop or an iPad. But just like another software, it gets clunky because of too many add-ons, repositories, and caches that are added to it while playing your favorite videos. These make the system slow and decrease user experience. The best way to shut this lag is to go for a kodi freshstart.

In this post, we will help you bring kodi software to a fresh start by removing all add-ons and doing a factory restore for all settings.

How to reset Kodi to factory settings?

Kodi can be reset to factory settings through multiple repositories. But two of the best repositories that we will use in here include Ares Wizard and Fusion. So, without further talk, let us get to the core of the process.

  List of Kodi fresh start repo

Kodi Factory Reset with Ares Wizard

First, install the Ares Wizard on your Kodi installation as an addon. To do so…

Go to the file manager and add http://areswizard.co.uk as a source

Now, go to addons and install kodi respository called: repository.aresproject-0.1.0.zip

  After the repository is installed, click open it and install Ares wizard from program add-ons

It will take a few minutes before the Ares wizard is fully installed.

Once inside, click on MORE and ERASE ALL DATA/FRESH START

Clicking yes will automatically delete unused data and empty caches of the software.

  Note: By deleting all data from the kodi software, you will also be uninstalling the addons. So, remember to make a list of them and add them once you are done with the factory reset process.

  Kodi Factory Reset with Fusion Repository

First open File Manager and then add source http://ift.tt/1sOTfSQ, just like we did with Ares Wizard installation.

Add the name ‘Fusion’ for the media source and click Ok.

Now go back to System> Addons> Install from Zip file> Fusion

Now select ‘Start here’ and ‘plugin.video.fresh-start-x-x-x.zip’ and wait for the notification of addon enabled.

Now go to the program add-on section and start ‘Fresh Start’ program.

The program will delete everything from Kodi and bring it to the factory default settings.

  Other methods for Factory Reset:

Kodi fresh start windows

Uninstall Kodi from Add or Remove program in Windows.

Now head over to the Kodi installation folder and delete all files

Install a disk cleaner software and run it to get rid of all broken files associated with Kodi software

Kodi fresh start mac

Completely uninstall Kodi from Mac and then reinstall it. You can also download a new version from the internet to do the same.

How to uninstall Kodi on Firestick On a fire stick, there are two options to reset Kodi to factory settings. These include:

Fire Stick Factory Reset:

Fire tv stick has a reset option that deletes all apps available on it. This can only be used as a last resort and is viable when your fire stick tv has some sort of problem, not just the Kodi software installation.

Android Reset:

As Fire Stick is part of android, you can also delete Kodi cache to bring it to factory defaults.

To do so, go to settings, apps, manage apps, and now click on Kodi. Select the clear data and clear cache options to remove everything from it.

Remove a build from Kodi

The above mentioned steps will help you remove kodi build and erase data from the installation. If you are not happy with the factory reset of Kodi build, you can remove it completely with the uninstallation process. The ways to uninstall it on windows and mac computers are already described above.

Error Encountered: Kodi fresh start not working

Kodi Crashes After Install

You need to remove all add-ons from the list and do a fresh start again. To do so, add either Ares wizard or Fusion and remove all data from it

Disable Hardware acceleration

If the Kodi fresh start is still struggling to achieve speed, then the best way to go about it is to disable hardware acceleration. Sometimes, the hardware isn’t synced with the system and making it lag.

You can do it from the gear (settings) icon on Kodi home page.

Kodi not connecting to source

Your internet may be stopping Kodi from connecting to the source. This happens because ISPs have blocked Kodi in their region. You can check with your ISP or install IPVanish VPN to remove all hurdles related to internet and network.

Kodi can’t install an addon

If an add-on is not getting installed on Kodi, then check the following:

Kodi addon isn’t outdated

It has all the dependencies installed

It isn’t a security risk – check the latest security patch for Kodi

Video frequently stutters or loads for a long time

If the video buffering is taking too much time, then this means your internet is slow. This can also mean that the ISP is blocking speed to Kodi. You can install a VPN to remove these hurdles.

Final Word:

Is your Kodi installation slow? Time to make the factory reset again. There are a few ways mentioned in this article that can help speed-up the factory reset process. Further, these error-solutions for factory resetting will help keep your Kodi installation maintained and working and prolific speed.

Are you facing an issue with your Kodi installation? Let us know in the comments below

The post How to Perform Fresh Start for Kodi with Factory Reset Option? appeared first on Kodi Analysis.

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[bi-dazai]

Also I might just write something General on how to deal with internet stuff like this. Because it’s happened to me multiple times, particularly on this site, and I can say that after over four years on here there’s a way of dealing with drama that I only finally really understood a few months ago.

1. Don’t use buzzwords. Don’t use inflammatory language. Tag your drama posts with something that your followers can block and tell your followers about the tag.

2. If you find yourself typing out the same response for the tenth time, then it’s time to start deleting anons and stop replying. You’ve said what needs to be said. Focus on responding to new arguments, or just take a step outside and go for a walk.

3. Do actually consider their argument. Consider from their perspective. Be understanding. You’re dealing with real people - that’s an actual human being with feelings behind the multiple “fuck you’s” and “liberal cucks”. Not everyone has had the same upbringing and experiences you have.

4. Look into their arguments, then look into blogs and responses that offer the opposite perspective or aim to disprove the arguments. Consider the reliability, accuracy, etc, of each side, then respond thus.

5. It’s okay to agree. If you’ve taken steps 3 and 4 and found that, hey, your perspective has shifted in a few aspects, that’s okay! Tell them you agree in those aspects! This is called a civilised debate.

6. If you don’t agree with anything, or you still want to rebut some of their points, then offer good sources of disprovals of their arguments. Avoid tumblr blogs, Wikipedia, any content from places such as Mic.com, breitbart, buzzfeed, youtubers, etc. These offer opinionated views, and no matter how accurate and evidential their actual content may be, they do have reputations that can shut down the credibility of their words pretty damn easily.

7. You actually don’t even need to respond. Even if all the world is ganging up on a post you made, you’re quite welcome to ignore it, block the notifs of the post (that’s an xkit feature) and carry on your merry way.

8. If you choose no 7 be aware of respect. You can vent about what they’re doing, but dont tag it as anything, don’t name names and URLs, remember the handy //. You’ve chosen not to engage with them. So don’t.

9. If you’ve chosen to interact with them, then you have to know when to stop. If you find yourself constantly apologising and re-explaining, if it’s been 3 or more days and you’re still getting an onslaught, then stop. Make a post saying you’re done, then delete any messages about it that come into your inbox, stop responding. Do number 7 and 8.

10. know that this will all blow over fairly quickly as soon as you stop interacting with them. They thrive off your interaction. Along with this, they form their own side of the internet that’s separate from yours. Eventually they’ll fade out and you won’t ever interact with them again. True story - I’m on several TERF blogs callout lists (despite me being a minor and messaging them this to point it out they weren’t a fan of removing my name so). I legit don’t even remember their URLs. They’re on a different side of tumblr than me. As soon as I stopped reblogging their posts and by doing that encouraging them to enter my side again (since they had barged in first), they just faded out of my world.

11. DO NOT ENGAGE OR MAKE THE FOLLOWING POSTS: - “callout posts” - tagging certain people’s content as “receipts” - receipts always end up more popular than apologies and fosters an unforgiving culture - “doxxing” - dear god, do not expose stuff like that. That can destroy people’s lives. Yes, maybe they’re a racist shit. But if you find their employment info and you want to get them fired for shitty behaviour - fucking file a formal complaint, saying they’ve seriously damaged the reputation of the company/establishment/whatever. You think you might need more to get proper actin to be taken? Keep pressuring the place to do something and/or get some friends to also make complaints. Don’t organise an internet witchhunt. - while you shouldn’t be doing the above anyway, if you’re going to be an immoral crazed hate-machine, then ALWAYS CHECK WHETHER THE PERSON IS A MINOR. If you’re going to do these horrible things, at least don’t do them to minors. If you’ve seen a kid do something shitty and you find which school they go to, follow the advice given in the point above this one.

I’ll just add in some stuff about dealing with this emotionally as well.

1. Internet drama will affect you. It will make you depressed, it will make you miserable. It’s not stupid because it’s the internet - it’s perfectly reasonable to be depressed about coming home to find your blog invaded by 25 messages from people you’ve never met telling you you’re a horrible person for not supporting their worldview. Earlier this year when I started getting put on those TERF hit lists I genuinely began considering self-harm. What made it worse was the cultural idea that it was just petty internet drama, which made me feel even more awful because it made me think I was shallow. You aren’t. Dare i use the cursed phrase - your feelings are valid.

2. Replace the tab. By this I mean close the tab with the site/s with the drama on it. Replace that tab with, say, your favourite tv show. Or look for some events happening around you and see what you might be interested in. Play a flash game. Literally do anything else but engage in social media. The internet is diverse and huge - there are many other things to do. Sometimes your internet session just needs to be something else for a bit. You might need to take a break from a site for a bit, so use the time you would spend on that site on a different one. Again, not social media. All social media is cruel.

3. Know that it will blow over. It will end. People will forget. The internet is horrible because it starts drama, but it’s also great because it forget within a matter of days. After that short time you can go back to whatever you were doing.

4. Go outside. I know it sounds silly but. Please. Go for a walk and make yourself promise you won’t pull your phone out and check the internet during that walk. The internet world and the real world are two fairly separate entities and removing one to involve yourself fully in the other is good for the soul in times when you’re getting 400 messages a day telling you to kill yourself. There are dogs in the real world. Go pat ‘em.

5. If you took option 7 above, a good reason is that it isn’t worth it to engage. Often people will reblog a post of yours days later when it has barely any notes and write essays on why you’re wrong and because of that you’re a terrible person, despite them having to dig through piles and piles worth of posts within a certain tag (often which these people wouldn’t go to unless they were deliberately seeking out drama) to find yours, to which they’re now working themselves into a frenzy over. If this is happening to you then guess what? That shit is hilarious. It’s honestly pathetic, and it’s 90% of the drama you will get into. Finding the “haters” funny is good, because it grounds you. It gives you a sense of reason and place. Another thing to laugh at is if you keep restating your counter arguments yet the person/people you’re arguing with just keeps restating the point you’ve rebutted despite not rebutting your rebuttal. That’s also pathetic, and also desperate. Find humour in the situation to ground yourself.

6. Find other people who share your view. Let their views reassure you. You don’t have to agree blindly with everything they say, but it’s nice to know you aren’t alone.

Anyway. People were creating a storm over a post I made and I felt the urge to inform the world on how to deal with everyone in your notifs saying you’re a bad person.